Review: Happily Ever After (by Debbie Tung)

My Rating: 3 stars

 

I read Debbie Tung’s Book Love last year and absolutely loved it!   As a fellow bookworm, I was able to relate to practically everything that was in that book and would be nodding my head with a smile on my face as I turned each page.  

It was precisely because of my affinity for Tung’s previous book that I decided to pick up her newest work Happily Ever After.   Just like with Book Love, this is another comic collection drawn by Tung herself , with inspiration from her own life’s experiences, except that this time around, instead of being about books, it is about marriage and relationships – specifically her own married life with her husband.   While I did like reading this one for the most part and thought it was definitely a cute read overall, I unfortunately wasn’t able to relate to most of the “sweet and mundane moments” depicted in here.  Some of the comics did make me smile, but the enjoyment level, of course, wasn’t on par with what I had felt with Tung’s previous collection of comics about books and being a book lover. 

Basically, this was an instance of me picking up this book purely because of the author / illustrator, which I’m ok with doing for graphic novels and comics, since these are usually short and don’t take up too much of my time to read.  I will likely still pick up Tung’s next collection of comics even if it’s a subject matter that doesn’t appeal much to me, as I do like her illustrations quit a bit and definitely don’t mind seeing more of it!

Received ARC from Andrews McMeel Publishing via Edelweiss.

Review: Yo-Kai Watch, Volume 14 (by Noriyuki Konishi)

My Rating: 4 stars

Continuing on with our tradition of reading the Yo-Kai Watch manga series together, my nephew and I just finished volume 14, which is the latest version released in English and I was able to get an ARC for.  Just like the previous volumes before it, this one continues the adventures of Nate and his various Yo-Kai friends.  Once again, our favorite feline friend, the mischievous Jibanyan, is the focus of majority of the stories and as usual, he gets himself into a pickle each time he is either summoned to help Nate or encounters a fellow Yo-Kai that he of course never wants to fight.  My nephew and I love Jibanyan, so of course having him in every story works for us — with that said though, we also love Jibanyan's camaraderie with Nate and his Yo-Kai butler Whisper as well as the special, irreplaceable chemistry that the 3 of them always have together (the way that Jibanyan constantly annoys Whisper on purpose never fails to make us laugh, lol).  So of course, we were quite disappointed that Nate and Whisper only featured in less than half the stories this time around.  While it's fun to meet new Yo-Kai characters in each volume, it's equally a joy to be able to read about old Yo-kai friends and see what type of new adventures they get to go on — the earlier volumes had a better balance of both, in my opinion.

Regardless of how the book was structured and the lack of usual favorites in terms of characters, getting to spend quality time reading with my nephew is an experience I always cherish.  This is one of those times where the book's content matters much less than the shared experience of being able to read the book with a loved one. These are always a joy to read and definitely, both my nephew and I continue to look forward to reading the next volumes in this much beloved series!

Received ARC from VIZ Media via Edelweiss.

Review: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 4 -- Diamond is Unbreakable, Volume 4 (by Hirohiko Araki)

My Rating:  3 stars

I’ve never been a huge manga reader, but my nephew enjoys it, so I decided to check out some of the series he’s been into lately.  One of those series is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, which was originally published in Japan as part of the Shonen Jump magazine series from 1987 through the early 2000s.  There are 8 parts to the series (which apparently continues to be an ongoing series still popular in Japan), though only the first 4 parts have been released in English here in the United States.  The story revolves around members of the Joestar family, each of whom possesses some type of supernatural ability in the form of a “Stand” that they use to battle a variety of enemies, leading up to defeat of a main villain at the end of each part.

When I was browsing Edelweiss earlier this month, I noticed that part 4 -- which is being released in February 2020 by Viz Media (the manga series’ English-language distributor in North America) -- was already available for request, so I figured this would be a good chance to both check out the series and have some quality reading time with my nephew.  Of course, my nephew was excited at the opportunity to finally read the manga version, even though he already knew the entire story due to watching all the video adaptations of the manga that have apparently been out for quite some time already.  This knowledge would actually come in handy, as we soon discovered that the version being published was chapters 57 to 75 of part 4, which is only around 20 chapters out of a total 174 chapters that part 4 is comprised of – so basically, we started reading this somewhere in the middle of one part of the series (volume 4 of part 4 to be exact).  Without any prior context or knowledge of the series, it probably was not a good idea to start smack dab in the middle like we did, as I ended up completely lost for the first 10 chapters or so – it got a little better halfway through, but much of that was because my nephew explained the story to me as we read and also gave me the background context to each of the characters (when I said earlier that he knew the entire story, I definitely wasn’t exaggerating, lol). 

We did end up getting through the entire volume and my nephew loved it of course, but I wasn’t as keen on it, mostly because this is the type of manga series where the story continues on from one volume to the next, so unless you start at the very beginning (or you’re already familiar with the story like my nephew was), it’s really hard not to muddle through.  I also thought it was way too long -- nearly 400 pages! – though to be fair, as mentioned earlier, I don’t read a lot of manga, so perhaps that is normal length nowadays.  I’m also not a fan of the genre (supernatural fantasy), which I’m pretty sure is the main reason why I found it so difficult to follow the story.  In any case -- with all that said, I decided to rate this 3 stars, as the issue was with me rather than the book itself, plus my nephew did enjoy it even if I didn’t, so I figured this is the fairest way to go.  As for future volumes, I haven’t decided whether I will request the next one when it comes out – it depends on whether my nephew will still be into the series or not by that time, since his interests change constantly from one month to the next.  If he’s still into it, then definitely, I will continue to request and read future volumes with him, though I will be sure to read up on the backstory and the characters first so the experience can be less arduous the next time around!

Received ARC from Viz Media via Edelweiss.

Review: Yo-Kai Watch, Volume 11 (by Noriyuki Konishi)

My Rating: 4 stars

It is starting to become a tradition of sorts for my nephew and I to read the latest installment of this Yo-kai Watch manga series together each time a new volume is released.   This volume continues to be focused on the adventures of Nate, Whisper, and our favorite cat Yo-kai Jibanyan – while Nate continues to befriend more Yo-kai and add more medals to his collection (with his trusty butler Whisper by his side of course), Jibanyan  continues to get himself in all sorts of lovely trouble, lol.  Just like with the previous volumes we've read together, my nephew loves to insert his own commentary when we get to a newer Yo-kai that I might not be familiar with – he'll usually tell me which season (of the TV series) the Yo-kai is from as well as what its abilities are, which of course I'm appreciative of since I don't keep up-to-date with this stuff like he does.  We had a lot of fun reading this volume and to us, this one seemed to be so much funnier than the previous few volumes we had read.  I continue to recommend this series for Yo-kai Watch fans of all ages, as it's fun and yes, sometimes a little irreverent but there's usually a lesson to be learned in each book, so reading it together with a child is most ideal.

Speaking of children's books -- someone asked me once what my rating system is for books like this geared toward children and how do I determine whether a book is "good" or not.  To be honest, I couldn't really answer the question because in general, I don't like to rate or review children's books if I can help it (this Yo-kai Watch series is an exception due to them being ARCs so I feel obligated to review).  I've always been of the mindset that children's books should be true "leisure" reading and having to go through the process of critiquing the book and breaking down various aspects of it in a review makes it feel too much like work, which, to me, takes all the fun out of reading it.   I'm not an educator so I haven't the slightest clue what types of books are considered "educational" for children or whether they meet certain criteria or whatnot.  For me, the most important thing is that the child in my household (my nephew) has cultivated a love of reading due to being exposed to all sorts of books from a young age and now at 8 years old, he is already reading above his grade level.  In terms of whether a children's book is "good" or not – for me, I'm concerned less with the content of the book and more with the experience of reading it.   As long as the book doesn't contain anything blatantly inappropriate or offensive, we pretty much let my nephew read whatever types of books he prefers and if the subject matter is difficult or controversial, we make sure we read with him so we can help clarify and/or answer any questions he may have.  Every household is different but for ours, this is what works best.

Received ARC from Viz Media / Simon & Schuster via Edelweiss.

Review: Book Love (by Debbie Tung)

 My Rating: 5 stars

I absolutely loved this collection of comics about the joys of reading and being a book lover!  Every single page resonated with me – as a bookworm, reading this was pure bliss!  The illustrations were beautiful and the ones with dialogue were so spot-on to the point that I almost got a neck cramp from nodding my head so often, lol. 

This is a book that anyone who loves books absolutely has to read!  With the holidays around the corner, this book would make a great gift for the booklover in your life (the minute I finished reading this, I immediately went online and ordered a physical copy for myself).

With all that said, it’s hard for me to pick a favorite comic from this book because I loved all of them alot, so I’m not going to torture myself.   All I’m going to say is:  READ THIS BOOK…you definitely won’t regret it!

Received ARC from Andrews McMeel Publishing via NetGalley