This was cute. That’s kind of the only word I can come up with to describe it. We watched it for family movie night, and everyone enjoyed it (my 12yo daughter most of all). Based on the first in a series of novels by Nancy Springer, the film features Millie Bobby Brown as the titular […]
Category: Reviews
Movies: Mulan (2020)
So this was… okay, I guess. I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe something epic. It wasn’t that. It was just kinda fine. It starts well enough, with a young Mulan showing off her chi as she chases a chicken through her village. Here is a girl with the energy, power, and abilities that […]
Books: Classroom of the Elite (Light Novels 1-5)
Ayanokouji is a first-year student at a government-run high school in Tokyo. His strangely deadpan expression leads others to believe he is morose, stupid, or maybe just sleepy. But it actually conceals a devious mind. Students at this school are divided into four classrooms, A through D. Ayanokouji is in Class D, known colloquially as […]
Television: Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun
If you need something lighthearted to keep you from falling apart right now, this is the show for you. Based, as I understand it, on a Japanese comic strip, this is the story of Sakura Chiyo, a high schooler with a crush on the oblivious Nozaki Umetarou. (Note: I’m putting the characters’ names in Japanese […]
Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) Series I & II
So let’s be 100% clear from the start. I have not read any of the manga. I have only watched the first two series. The first is from 2008-2009, the second from 2010. I hope to find and watch Book of Circus, Book of Murder, and Book of the Atlantic. And of course I’d really […]
Movies: Palm Springs
This… was part Groundhog Day, part Hangover, and pretty much all stupid. So if you like that kind of thing… Andy Samberg stars as Nyles, a man who has been living the same day repeatedly for longer than he can remember. That day includes the wedding of his girlfriend’s bf Tala, an event Nyles isn’t […]
Books: Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry
Richard Lloyd Parry is a foreign news correspondent in Tokyo, and this book is comprised of numerous interviews with survivors of the March 11, 2011 tsunami that hit the Tohoku region of Japan. I only heard about this book from a YouTuber of all things (Chris Broad of the Abroad in Japan channel). But I […]
Books: Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch
It might be best (it usually is) to start at the beginning. Lies Sleeping is the seventh in the Peter Grant/Rivers of London series of books. I previously reviewed a number of the earlier books on my spooklights site, but I’ll give a small recap here, too. Peter Grant is a police constable in modern-day […]
Movies: Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
If you’ve seen Blades of Glory and you liked it, this is probably the movie for you. Honestly, I expected something more like Documentary Now! or This is Spinal Tap, but this does not have the mockumentary style in that it doesn’t pretend to be following things as they unfold, nor does it interview characters, […]