The Drifting Classroom volume 2

 In the second part of The Drifting Classroom, we see the characters battle yet again with a bug monster go through the black plague and deal with a horrible one-eyed god. The characters are pretty bright. If I was left in this situation when I was a kid I would have been cooked. I like the bond Takamatsu has with his mom and how she can connect with him through his crisis. So far this has been a promising Japanese comic series. I'm curious about Umezz's other stuff now. 

Book of a Thousand Days

 

This was an ok fairy tale book based slightly on Grimms' "Maid Maleen." It's about a princess and her maid being trapped in a tower together. This happened because the princess refused a man named Khasar. It soon becomes clear to the reader that the maid is the stronger of the two. She's the one who remains most stable when the food rations dwindle and the one who figures out how to escape. Eventually, the maid breaks free of the tower even defeating Khasar himself. However, she almost gets hanged for impersonating the princess. This was an enjoyable book though not as strong as Princess Academy which was a lovely book. I wish that the love story was more developed though. 

The Driver's Seat

 

This was a pretty good read from writer Muriel Spark. I read this over ten years ago and decided it needed another rereading. I remembered it being edgy and it lived up to its memory. The main character Lise is a mess and she's on a self-destructive journey. When she is on an airplane a man immediately changes his seat. It's just his gut instinct that something is off with this woman. The ending is unpredictable. I was expecting her to end up with the new age guy but the novella had a different direction in mind. I liked The Girls of Slender Means and it was more subtle. The Driver's Seat wants to push the envelope though and if anything it shows that Muriel Spark was a pretty versatile writer. I read it in a few days.

The Drifting Classroom volume 1

 

So far this has been an excellent anime from Kazuo Umezz. It's about an elementary that drifts itself from the world. The parents have no idea what has happened to their kids. Meanwhile, the adults and the kids are losing it, especially the adults. It turns out their nice lunch man is actually a mean guy. It's up to the kids to organize leadership positions and control the food supply. They also come upon unexpected situations like gigantic animals. So far this has been promising and I'm awaiting the rest.

The Girls of Slender Means

 I remember I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie once during my lunch break at work. A person said they had to read that in high school and they were baffled that anyone would read that on their own time for leisure. I felt like reading another book by Muriel Spark. It's been a while and this was a good one. It's about a boarding house called The May of Teck. The house boards pretty young girls but also spinsters who will never get a chance at marriage. We get to know some of the girls specifically Joanna and Jane. Jane spends time with the writer Nicolas Farringdon but he would rather be with the beautiful Selina. The book ends in a tragedy and we find out what"the girls of slender means" really means and what benefits they get from it  There's also a pretty funny scene where Jane writes to authors to gain monetary value for their autographs. George Bernard Shaw gives a pretty funny reply. This wasn't as good as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie but it was all right.  

The Wizard of Oz

 

The Wizard of Oz surpassed its publisher's expectations definitely selling more copies than predicted and putting a classic. It's imaginative. It's funny and whimsical. (My favorite part is when we meet the real wizard himself. It was hilarious.) When I was a kid my twin sister and I used to have fights on which land was better Narnia or Oz. I was a Narnia girl. But I'm slowly making my way through the series. The Patchwork Girl of Oz was easily the second-best book of the series. A lot of love went into The Wizard of Oz which is why the book still remains a unique imaginative book. 

The House on the Lagoon

 

I really liked The Youngest Doll which was a neat short story collection so I decided to try out one of Ferre's novels. I liked this one. It is about a wife writing the history of her husband's family background as well as their own love story and children. The husband has a range of emotions. First off he's jealous. He doesn't have the time to write a book like this. There are also the inaccuracies like the things she gets wrong about his family's background. He wrestles between the thoughts of throwing it away until there is finally a confrontation about it. The book also has a rich history of Puerto Rico. I especially like reading about the woman's love of dancing as well as the making of the house on the lagoon itself. Ferre was a versatile writer. She could write short stories and novels equally well. This was a National Book award finalist. I wonder why it didn't win the prize. It's pretty good. People online criticize the book saying that the characters and plot got like a soap opera at times but I liked it that way. It made me involved and kept me turning the pages.