Isaiah Roby's Blog: MI Book Reviews, page 100
April 21, 2019
The Arrival
By Shaun Tan
“In a heartbreaking parting, a man gives his wife and daughter a last kiss and boards a steamship to cross the ocean. He’s embarking on the most painful yet important journey of his life- he’s leaving home to build a better future for his family.
Shaun Tan evokes universal aspects of an immigrant’s experience through a singular work of the imagination. He does so using brilliantly clear and mesmerizing images. Because the main character can’t communicate in words, the book forgoe...
It’s Not like It’s a Secret
By Misa Sugiura
“Sixteen-year-old Sana Kiyohara has too many secrets. Some are small, like how it bothers her when her friends don’t invite her to parties. Some are big, like that fact that her father may be having an affair. And then there’s the one that she can barely even admit to herself—the one about how she might have a crush on her best friend.
When Sana and her family move to California she begins to wonder if it’s finally time for some honesty, especially after she meets Jamie Ramire...
April 20, 2019
Inubaka, Crazy For Dogs: Volume 1
By Yukiya Sakuragi
“All alone except for her loyal mutt Lupan, 18-year-old Suguri moves from the countryside to the big city to find a job and a new life! When she accepts a job at a pet store, she meets a variety of dogs and owners, each with own quirky personality. What she lacks in experience, she makes up for with her natural rapport with all things wagging and fluffy!” -goodreads
Published: 2007 by VIZ Media (English Translation)
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Read and Reviewed: April 2019
The best part about this st...
April 19, 2019
Beauty’s Kingdom
“Before E. L. James and Sylvia Day, there was Anne Rice: Discover Beauty’s Kingdom, the fourth novel in the bestselling Sleeping Beauty series
Mega-bestselling author Anne Rice, writing as A. N. Roquelaure, returns to the mysterious kingdom of Queen Eleanor in this new chapter of her Sleeping Beauty series. When the great queen is reported dead, Beauty and Laurent return to the kingdom they left twenty years before. Beauty agrees to take the throne, but she insists that all erotic servitude...
April 15, 2019
Shout
“A searing poetic memoir and call to action from the bestselling and award-winning author of Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson!
Bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson is known for the unflinching way she writes about, and advocates for, survivors of sexual assault. Now, inspired by her fans and enraged by how little in our culture has changed since her groundbreaking novel Speak was first published twenty years ago, she has written a poetry memoir that is as vulnerable as it is rallying, as time...
April 13, 2019
Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion, The Movie (Full Series)
By Magica Quartet
“A three volume manga adaption of The Rebellion Story film based on Gen Urobuchi’s scenario, illustrated by hanokage.” -goodreads
Published: 2013 (original Japanese), 2015 by Yen Press (English Translation)
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Read and Reviewed: April 2019
This review contains spoilers for the whole 3 book series!
Right off the bat, this was different than the other Madoka series, though it still revolves around the same five characters- Madoka, Sayaka, Kyouko, Mami, and Homura. This manga se...
April 9, 2019
Agnes Grey
By Anne Bronte
“Agnes Grey is the touching story of a young girl who decides to enter the world as a governess, but whose bright illusions of acceptance, freedom and friendship are gradually destroyed.
Drawing on her own experience, Anne Brontë charts the development of gentle Agnes and sympathetically depicts the harsh treatment she receives along the way. Leaving her idyllic home and close-knit family, Agnes arrives at the Bloomfield’s residence, inside whose walls reign cruelty and neglect...
Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity
“What happens when your gender doesn’t fit neatly into the categories of male or female? Even mundane interactions like filling out a form or using a public bathroom can be a struggle when these designations prove inadequate. In this groundbreaking book, thirty authors highlight how our experiences are shaped by a deeply entrenched gender binary.
The powerful first-person narratives of this collection show us a world where gender exists along a spectrum, a web, a multidimensional space. Nuanc...
Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story (Full Series)
By Magica Quartet
“Mami’s warm personality has made it difficult for her to adjust to her solitary life as a magical girl, where survival often takes precedence over kindness. When she meets Kyouko Sakura, a fellow lone wolf, she is excited at the prospect of working together with another magical girl and forging a friendship built on ultimate trust. But many are the sacrifices all magical girls must make, and the consequences of Kyouko’s choice are only just becoming clear to her. When the p...
April 8, 2019
The Opposite of Loneliness (Isaiah’s Review)
“An affecting and hope-filled posthumous collection of essays and stories from the talented young Yale graduate whose title essay captured the world’s attention in 2012 and turned her into an icon for her generation.
Marina Keegan’s star was on the rise when she graduated “magna cum laude” from Yale in May 2012. She had a play that was to be produced at the New York Fringe Festival and a job waiting for her at “The New Yorker.” Tragically, five days after graduation, Marina died in a car cras...
