#kouske oono

[onebluebookworm]

Ranking Books I Read in 2022: 40-36

40. The Way of the Househusband - Kousuke Oono

What I Liked: Tatsu is the cutest malewife to ever draw breath, his relationship with Miku makes me squee with delight What I Didn’t Like: Got pretty formulaic after the first few strips Final thoughts: Adorable ways to pass the time, but you can read the first volume and basically get the gist for the whole series.

39. White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America’s Darkest Secret - A.J. Bimes

What I Liked: This is always an interesting time period to read about. I’d literally never heard of Walter F. White before I read this book, and that’s a crime because his contributions to the early civil rights movement cannot be undersold. What I Didn’t Like: White himself was kind of a douche, which isn’t a fault of the book, but it didn’t make him very much fun to read about. This also isn’t the book’s fault, but reading this did once again reignite my fury over the fact there still isn’t a federal anti-lynching law on the books. Final thoughts: A fascinating book about a criminally understudied period of history and an underrepresented man. Worth a look if this is your sort of thing. TW for racist language and hate crimes.

38. A Wolf at the Table - Augusten Burroughs

What I Liked: Absolutely gorgeous language, a bittersweet ending that legitimately left me feeling sad and empty (a positive when reading a memoir about abuse) What I Didn’t Like: Not really the book’s fault, but most of the anecdotes about Burroughs’ father’s abuse followed a similar formula - something good happens, usually regarding a pet, then Burroughs’ father acts like a sociopath and ruins it, causing Burroughs to hate him a little more. Took the book a while to break this formula. Final thoughts: Perhaps a little too intense for me, but ultimately a raw, painful read that is worth it, especially for how short it is. TW for abuse and animal cruelty. Seriously, the amount of animals in this book that get the shaft is almost too much.

37. Banned Book Club - Kim Hyun Sook

What I Liked: An interesting look into a period I don’t think gets talked about very much. Evocative imagery with an excellent build up of tension and drama, without feeling melodramatic. What I Didn’t Like: A little too abrupt of an ending, although that’s another thing that you really can’t fault the book for, since it’s based on such a short period of Sook’s life. Final thoughts: Not the best memoir I read, but it was cool to get a look into a culture and history I wasn’t intimately familiar with. TW for torture.

36. Howl’s Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones

What I Liked: Hilarious characters. Sophie is my hero whether it’s the movie or the book. Howl is the funniest bastard ever. “You’ll exploit me” “And you’ll cut up my suits to show me” gets me every time. What I Didn’t Like: Things can get a little confusing with all the plots and schemes and callbacks and such. It takes a bit to get the plot off the ground. Final thoughts: A bit of a slog to set everything up, but once it does get going, it hits the ground and doesn’t stop, so it’s definitely worth it.

[onebluebookworm]

July 2022 Book Club Picks

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo: This is a story about a mouse, one Despereaux Tilling, in love with music, stories, and a beautiful, kindly princess. This is also a story about a rat, one Roscuro, a loathed, wicked creature who was born in the darkness, but craves light more than anything, and is willing to do anything to get it. It’s also the story of a serving girl, one Miggory Sow, clumsy, slow, and with an impossible dream. These three characters are about to embark on a journey that will lead them down into a horrible dungeon, up into a glittering castle, and, ultimately, into each other's lives. What happens then? As Kate DiCamillo would say: Reader, it is your destiny to find out. 

Sir Philip’s Folly by Marion Chesney: Arabella Carruthers is beautiful and intelligent, a prize for any man to whisk away during London’s famed Season. There’s only one problem - Arabella’s incredibly vain and recently widowed mother, who is intent on snatching a new husband for herself, forcing Arabella to masquerade as a child to make herself appear younger. But when the Carruthers decide to patronize the famed Poor Relation, Arabella meets the curious staff of the hotel, who are dealing with a problem of their own - Mrs. Mary Budge, vulgar, lazy, and the latest paramour of Sir Philip Somerville. Banding together with Arabella and the handsome Lord Denby, the staff rally to not only rid themselves of the odious Mrs. Budge and teach Sir Philip a lesson, but perhaps strike a love match for the sweet and friendly Arabella in the process.

Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives by Gary Younge: November 23, 2013 - an ordinary late autumn day in the United States of America. On this ordinary day, ten children - ages 9 to 19, spanning race, location, and socioeconomic backgrounds - are shot dead. Hour by hour, they fall at sleepovers, in hallways, on the streets, even on their own doorsteps. Some of the cases are highly publicized. Others barely warrant a mention in the local paper. But each case happened, just like they happen an average of seven times a day in the USA. This isn’t a book about gun control. This book doesn’t set out to answer why these shootings happened. It instead is an attempt to put a face on the human collateral damage that the USA’s rampant gun culture has wrought.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry: Meet the Younger family, a black family living in Chicago. The Youngers dream of a better life - a better paying job for a eldest son Walter, a proper home for matriarch Lena, a future for younger daughter Beneatha. And that dream seems to be becoming reality when Lena’s late husband’s life insurance money finally arrives, and she puts a down payment on a new house in an all-white neighborhood. But Walter’s shortsightedness, along with the prejudices of the world around them, threaten to tear down the family’s dreams before they can even begin to realize them.

The Way of the Househusband by Kouske Oono: Once, he was the Immortal Dragon, the most feared Yakuza Japan had ever seen. Now, he’s Tatsu, loving househusband. But old habits die hard, and as he navigates the world of culinary arts, homemaking, neighborhood associations, and community activism, Tatsu’s old life keeps cropping up in unexpected ways...and it’s not always necessarily a bad thing.