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Book review: Who is Shayla Hacker?

Who is Shayla Hacker?
Written by Evan Kilgore
Published by Bleak House Books
ISBN: 9781932557306

Review by Lauren Lapinski

How far would you be willing to go to find someone you may or may not remember from your past? Would you be willing to go so far that the search turns into an obsession with law enforcement at almost every turn you make, accusing you of crimes you didn’t commit? This seems to be the case with the characters in Who is Shayla Hacker?; five different characters, five different points of view and one question plaguing them all throughout the story. The writing style itself flowed very well and made for an easy read, but some of the things the main characters did seemed somewhat unrealistic to the point where I wanted to smack a few of them upside the head and ask what the hell were they thinking.
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Book Review: Work’s a Bitch and then You Make It Work

Work’s a Bitch and then You Make It Work: 6 Steps to Go From Pissed Off to Powerful
Written by Andrea Kay
Published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, an imprint of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
ISBN10: 1584797088
ISBN13: 9781584797081

Review by Linda Yau

What a mouthful of a title, readers of this review, and this is a self-help book. So do take a look at this book if this book can answer your current situation. The stimulus package promises plenty of jobs, so do not lose hope if this book is currently not for you at the moment.
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Yaoi Review: Love Code

Love Code
Story and Art: Sakurako Hanafubuki
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
ISBN-10: 1-56970-598-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-598-8

Review by Kris

Koji Mizuhara, the hottest thing in Japan right now, and Kyo Ayukawa, a rising star, have been dating for a while now. The two are hot and heavy but most still don’t know about their relationship. Mizuhara seems to have a dark past that not many know about and one of Ayukawa’s co-workers seems to know more than most. But this co-worker has a chip on his shoulder and seems to be harboring some jealousy toward Mizuhara. Plus there is a history with Saiki (the co-worker) and Mizuhara.
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Yaoi Review: Double Trouble

Double Trouble
Story and Art: Takashi Kanzaki
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
ISBN-10: 1-56970-585-2
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-585-8

Review by Kris

Kou Sawara has a massive crush on his new stepbrother. He’d never had a mother’s attention and Naruki Sawara is quite domesticated. Luckily he is able to escape to his dorm at school. But he’s in for a surprise; Naruki has followed him to school! Naruki is only a year older than Kou and he adores his new brother. Of course Kou struggles with his own urges to jump Naruki but he takes it upon himself to protect his brother from other perverts at Seiran (their high school). Kou’s roommate, Yoshino, offers up his hypnotism abilities to make it so Naruki can protect himself. But Yoshino has an ulterior motive. He’s in love with Kou and wants to help him realize that Kou is really the uke instead of the seme that he thinks he is. Once the hypnotism is complete the if the sweet Naruki gets turned on he turns into super aggressive ‘seme-Naruki’. It seems that Naruki is also attracted to Kou but is only able to do anything about it while he’s in seme-Naruki mode. With Kou now being in the uke position Yoshino is determined to win over Kou.
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Yaoi Review: The Dawn of Love

The Dawn of Love
Story and Art by Kazuho Hirokawa
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
ISBN-10: 1-56970-583-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-583-4

Review by Linda Yau

Masahiro Matsunaga is a confident law student who is openly gay, and one day he is suddenly attracted by his classmate Takane Takekawa. Masahiro vows to sleep with him once, but upon finding out that Takane was a very willing partner, and they sleep together. Masahiro discovers that once was not enough, and becomes obsessed to committing with Takane in a monogamous relationship. The problem with Takane is the fact that he is willing to treat Masahiro as a sex friend, but it would take more to convince him to let go of his five other relationships. Even more importantly Takane’s one older lover, who he is reluctant to end with. Now how will Mashairo deal with his fickle lover?
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Book Review: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Written by Muriel Barbery
Published by Europa editions
ISBN10: 1933372605
ISBN13: 9781933372600

Review by Linda Yau

It took me a while to get through this book, but I have finally made through it, and what a reading time that it was. The Elegance of the Hedgehog is an unlikely story of friendship between social classes. Set in Paris, Renée is a widowed concierge of an apartment building. Her employers are all families of bourgeois backgrounds, and she makes her observations of them on a first person narrative. Renée seemingly gets by in life by deceiving nearly everyone of her intelligence and appreciation of knowledge.
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Manga Review: The Manzai Comics vol. 1

The Manzai Comics vol.1
Story by: Atsuko Asano
Art by: Hizuru Imai
Published by Aurora Publishing
ISBN-10: 1934496502
ISBN-13: 978-1934496503

Review by Kris

Manzai: Japanese stand-up comedy style. It is usually performed as a duo with one straight man and one funnyman (basically Japanese Abbott and Costello type routines).

Takashi Akimoto wants to make it as a manzai performer but he can’t seem to find the right partner. That’s the case until new student Ayumu Seta transfers to his school. Ayumu has had a rather traumatic past and wants to put that all behind him and be a normal middle school student. He hopes that will be the case until Takashi approaches him and asks, “Please go out with me.” Being a bit weirded out Seta thinks that Takashi is gay, but Takashi only wants Ayumu to perform manzai. Ayumu eventually agrees, reluctantly. What Ayumu can’t figure out is why Takashi insists that he is the one to perform. Takashi wants to convince Ayumu that being normal is overrated and that Ayumu is special. When the school festival approaches Takashi and Ayumu have the opportunity to perform. Will it work out?
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Yaoi Review: Where Has Love Gone?

Where Has Love Gone?
Story and Art: Ryoku Tsunoda
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
ISBN-10: 1-56970-021-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-021-1

Review by Kris

Motoi Takayama is a successful salesman at a pharmaceutical company. He admires his co-worker Ryouichi Ishikawa for his perfection in all aspects. He’s talented at his job, he’s hardworking, and gorgeous. Takayama is gay and he can’t help but catch himself staring at the handsome man from time to time. No one knows Takayama is gay and he wants to keep it that way. That all changes one night when a chance encounter with none other than Ishikawa witnesses a make-out scene between Takayama and a man. Takayama is worried about the fallout of this discovery and figures he’s as good as fired. Thankfully Ishikawa feels that whatever happened outside of work should stay there unless it is going to affect your performance. As the day progresses, however, things turn all topsy-turvy. Takayama has an excellent day of sales while Ishikawa has a terrible day. He tries to blow off some steam with a lady in the office but she runs off in huff. Since Takayama

is the only one left Ishikawa forces himself on Takayama. He doesn’t seem to see a problem with it because Takayama’s gay, so he likes it right?
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Yaoi Review: Tricky Prince

Tricky Prince
Story and Art: Yukari Hashida
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
ISBN-10: 1-56970-607-7
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-607-7

Review by Kris

Eugene is an impoverished student at university. Because he’s poor and only getting by because of his scholarship all he does is study. At his university there is a very high profile student there. It happens to be the prince of the country, Willis. Eugene doesn’t have time to worry and speculate what the prince is up to, unlike many of those that live in his dorm enjoy doing. When the dorm Christmas party arrives Eugene is holed up studying when his roommate and other dorm residents ambush him and dress him in drag for the party. Since Eugene is nearsighted (his fellow residents hid his glasses) he stumbles right into the Prince Willis. Since Eugene has no idea who he’s addressing, he pulls no punches in his comments. Willis thinks that Eugene is dressed this way for a gag and immediately is drawn to him. It turns out that there was a paparazzo following Willis and took a picture of these two in an embrace.
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VIZ Announces New Original Manga Series From Rumiko Takahashi

VIZ Media announced on Sunday that they will publish a new original manga series from Rumiko Takahashi, author of INUYASHA. The following is from the VIZ press release:

This is the first new original manga series from Takahashi sensei since her epic INUYASHA series ended in 2008. Shogakukan’s popular WEEKLY SHONEN SUNDAY manga magazine, which has featured Takahashi’s work since the early 1980’s, will be debuting the new series and VIZ Media will be publishing the manga series later in 2009!
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