Emma, Volume 3 by Kaoru Mori

Emma is on the train with her new friend, who is amazed that Emma is not only a maid, but that she worked for the same woman for almost six years. Her friend has never worked for the same house for more than two years at a time, and wonders if it is because she isn't up to snuff. Still, she finds the place she is working for now to be very pleasant and enjoys working there.

Edward, meanwhile, is back in the bosom of his family, getting thrown together with Eleanor on a riverboating party. While Edward's sisters matchmake with Edward and Eleanor, Edward is thinking of maids, or one in particular, since even a picnic on a riverbank requires the assistance of maids to lay out and serve. But he is also starting to worry his family. Ever since Emma left, he has become a paragon, doing all the work he once shirked out of boredom, attending parties, balls and invitations to tea that he once would have declined, and always coming to dinner with the family, not to mention staying up late at night to finish his work. But is it because he misses Emma, or is it because this is the only way to impress his father with his being grown up and a real man so that he can get his father's approval to marry the woman he wants- Emma?

Meanwhile, Emma is hired on at the Manor house owned by the same woman who is Mistress to Tasha, her friend from the train. The household is staffed by people both English and German, and although Emma is used to being a maid, she isn't quite used to the way that this household does things, nor of being one of over thirty servants and one of eight housemaids. But in addition to her new duties, there also come new compensations. For example, when the daughter of the house has a birthday, the servants, after her party, can have a party of their own.

Emma is unused to parties and drinking, so she ends up washing glasses with another servant named Hans during the party. Neither of them are used to parties, and from him she finds out that the Household and half of the servants are actually from Germany. Emma drinks some rum, thinking it is tea, gets tipsy, and goes to bed. The next day, she finds out that the daughter of the house wets her bed, and the son has a pet squirrel, which she helps get down when he gets tangled in the bed curtains. And then she becomes the one who is assigned to accompany the mistress of the house when she goes visiting.

But the woman that Dorothea visits, Mrs. Trollop, is a mystery, heavily into the orient in decoration, with a pet monkey, takes an interest in Emma. Could it be for her own son, and why would an aristocrat want a maid for her son? Or is she just interested because Emma is beautiful?

Well, now Emma is out of her comfort zone. No longer serving the only woman who has ever employed her as a maid, Emma has shown that she can survive in the world of a much larger house, with other servants. It's the other servants who seem to be immature and childish, getting drunk and partying like college kids on a bender. But it's Emma's levelheadedness that makes her invaluable to the head servants, and may get Hans interested in her. Away from Edward, will she fall for someone else?

And Edward has his own problems, like his family, to deal with. But is his little hissy fit having the effect he wants it to have? Will his parents realize that his behavior is due to having an upperclass version of a tantrum? Or will they just enjoy the effects? So far, it hasn't made anyone see the pain he is feeling, except for his old friend, Hakim, and Edward isn't talking, and is still thrown together with Eleanor more than he wants to be. But she seems to be truly falling for him, so how can he be with Emma without causing her pain?

Both Emma and Edward's stories are interesting, and I want to see and read more of both of them, and so I will. It's a quiet story, very much like my favorite series, Fruits Basket, and I like that it is set in Victorian/Edwardian times, which gives it a different feeling from modern day stories. I really like it, and I think that other readers will as well.

Emma. Volume 2 by Kaoru Mori

Emma is a maid in Victorian-Era London, where the divide between the working class, like Emma, and the upper class that she serves, is distressingly wide. Emma has fallen in love with Edward, a young man of the upper class and one of the former students of her current employer, Mrs. Kelly Stownar, an old nanny who is retired from service.

Emma asks for the day off so she can go on a date with Edward, and he takes her to the Crystal Palace. Unfortunately, they get locked in all night. For a while, they talk, but in the end, they end up kissing. In the morning, they are let out, and go immediately home. Meanwhile, Edward's father takes the liberty of inviting a Miss Eleanor Campbell to be Edward's date at the next dinner party he attends, and she agrees gladly.

But afterwards, Emma is gloomy because she knows that the distance socially between her and Edward is too wide. But he wants to convince his father no matter the cost, and Mrs. Stownar tells Emma that it will all work out, because of who Emma is. But the rest of Edward's family no more wants him to be with Emma than his father does, and at first they are convinced that it is Eleanor whom he loves. His friend Hakim is the one who spills the beans, which Edward doesn't like.

But when Mrs. Stownar finally passes away, Edward is no closer to convincing his father to let him marry Emma, and when Emma comes to see him, Edward's little sister, Vivi, tells Emma that Emma is just a fortune hunter and that Vivi hates her for trying to ensnare Edward in her "web". Emma is greatly disheartened by this lecture, and leaves, even though Hakim tells her she should wait and speak to Edward herself. Meanwhile, Edward has gone to Mrs. Stownar's house to try and speak to Emma, but she is no longer there.

Meanwhile, we get to see how Emma, who was born in the country, came to London and became a maid. Taken in by an ungrateful aunt. she was slapped and mistreated, before being kidnapped and sold into a brothel. Escaping that, she went into a life on the streets, selling flowers in Covent Garden before being taken in by a woman who used her to do odd jobs, and then she was taken in by Kelly Stownar herself. Now that she is once again without work, she must find a new situation before she starves once more.

So, when she bumps into another servant on the train leaving London, can she use her friendship with the girl to get a job with the same family? And what problems and opportunities will her new situation bring her? And after missing her at the station, what will happen to Edward?

This is another manga I found myself enjoying, and the story of Emma is compelling and interesting, because it shows so much of what Victorian life was like for servants. Emma for so long was the servant of one old woman, and it is very different serving in a big house with many multiple servants. Emma will just be one of many, and the former close relationship she enjoyed with her employer is going to be very different.

And she already knows that a love match between her and Edward is impossible, but to be railed at by his sister, even if she is very young, must be very disheartening for Emma. And Edward must deal with the disappointment of wanting to rescue the woman he loves, and being unable to. And now he has nothing but the emptiness in his heart of not having her and not knowing where she is. Will he give up and end up marrying Eleanor, or will he hold out for Emma, the woman he may never see again (okay, it's a manga. We all know that is never going to happen!)?

This is a slow-paced but engaging story that is a welcome change from all those modern-day high school romances with the amped up drama, tears and mean girls. For now, the lovers are parted, and something tells me that much time and distance will come between them before they meet again. Recommended.

Emma, Volume 1 by Kaoru Mori

Emma is a maid working for a woman named Mrs. Stownar, a former governess. When Mrs. Stownar gets a visit from Edmund, a former student, he also meets Emma and is immediately entranced by her good looks. And as his former governess asks him pointed and embarrassing questions about his life in the ten years since she has seen him last, she also begins to notice his attraction to her maid. So when she must go out to see someone and bids him goodbye, he manages to leave his gloves behind so that he can see Emma again, if only for a few more minutes. Mrs. Stownar realizes what he is up to immediately, but lets him continue.

He returns to a pub near where his former governess lives and manages to run into Emma again, and he leaves too large a note to pay for his beer- a sign that he is really smitten. She didn't see him, because she wears glasses, and the prescription is getting old and her eyes have gotten weaker. He offers to pay for new glasses for her, but she feels that is too much of an extravagance, and asks instead for a single lace handkerchief, which he buys her, and she remembers back when she first came to work for Mrs. Stownar and when her employer paid for her glasses.

Meanwhile, an old friend from India, Prince Hakim Atawally, arrives to see Edward and stay with his family for a while. But while he is supposed to be in the country incognito, he also arrives with a bunch of Indian Maidens in saris and a whole host of elephants, putting the "Incognito" part in a shambles. Hakim manages to persuade Edward to take a ride in the Howdah of an Elephant, but Edward is more terrified than exhilarated by the entire experience, and when Hakin orders his driver to make the elephant move at top speed, Edward is sickened, and when they pass Mrs. Stownar's house, he sees Emma and demands they stop. Thus, Hakim also meets Emma, and is similarly entranced by the beautiful maid.

But Edward and Hakim aren't Emma's only admirers, and when a present of Hakim's is delivered to the Jones estate, everyone assumes that Edward is the one who has commissioned the beautiful box. But Edward sees that it is Hakim's name on the order, and the box is engraved with "Beloved Emma", he becomes suspicious and a bit angry. He goes immediately to Mrs. Stownar's, and sees Hakim wearing completely Western dress and calling on Emma, who he has an interest in.

Hakim asks if she and William are in a relationship, to which she replies in the negative, and he tells her that he is in love with her, and he's glad that she and William aren't in love, because William is his friend, and he wouldn't do anything to hurt William for the world. Hakim tells Emma that he wants to protect her. She blushes, and doesn't reply. Meanwhile, at his club, Edward discusses Emma with his friends, and they all seem to know her because of her beauty, but all have been turned down by her when they sent her a letter or gift. In fact, she seems to spend a lot of time writing rejection letters.

Then a pipe breaks in the Stownar house, and Mrs. Stownar falls down the stairs when she is helping Emma move things out of the way of the leaking water. Afterwards, she reflects on her folly and asks Emma how she feels about Edward, if she is going to turn him down as well. Emma can only blush, and Mrs. Stownar thinks to herself that while their social classes might not be anywhere near each other, they are perfect in age and seem to like each other. Now, if only Edward's family might agree to their relationship...

But when Edward's father takes his son to visit Mrs. Stownar after her injury, he firmly discourages any thought of a romance between the two. Emma is a servant, while the Jones family is rich and of the upper crust of society. Besides, his father already has a girl of a similar family in mind for Edward. Is there any hope for the two young lovers to be together?

This manga shows the reality of the class divide in Victorian/Edwardian England. The Upper and Lower classes were like two different peoples in one country, and both looked down on either of the other attempting to marry up, with the member of the lower class either being a fortune or title hunter, or "having ideas above their station". It wasn't until after World War I that the classes really started to mingle, because so many young man had died off during the war and the Influenza that the class divide could not be maintained.

Men and women who had once seen nothing more or better than going into service with a rich family now had many more opportunities that it became extremely hard to fill positions on estates, and most of the jobs outside paid more and had more prestige, which led to the rich families coming into closer contact with the "lower" classes. So, this manga explores the time when the class divides were strict and strictly upheld.

Being people of the modern day, we as readers see no problem with a romance between Emma and Edward, and the resistance her father puts up to the idea seems merely obstructionist. But to him, his family would become laughingstock were he to allow Edward to romance Emma. And that is anathema to him. But I want to see how Emma wins over his family (if she does, and it would be a strange manga indeed if she doesn't in the end), so I will definitely read more of this series. Recommended, even if modern readers without a sense of history may find the romance aspect frustrating.

Mixed Vegetables, Volume 2 by Ayumi Komura

Hanaya Ashitaba and Hayato Hyuga each dream of being celebrated and world-famous chefs. The only problem is that each wants to be famous in the specialty of each other's family! Hanaya, whose family owns the Patisserie Ashitaba, wants nothing more from life than to be a sushi chef. And Hayato Hyuga, whose family owns Sushi Hyuga, would love it if he could spend all his days baking cakes and whipping up pastries.

But when they start dating, each of them seems to really feel something for the other, and Hanaya wonders if Hayato might actually feel something for her and not just want to marry for the business, like she does. But when she blurts out why she really accepted his romance on their first big date, he stuns her by revealing his own not-so- honorable motives. Realizing that neither is going to get what they want in the relationship, they abruptly break up. But knowing each other's secret dreams and aspirations makes them something more than just classmates, and something like actual friends.

Slowly, they begin to see into each other's worlds, and why each feels as they do about their chosen cooking profession. But decision time is coming up for each of them- the cooking teacher at the school has each student do an assignment where they lay out their future goals and dreams, so that he can discuss it with them and their parents. And this makes Hanaya very unhappy, because she knows that her dreams and aspirations will disappoint her parents greatly, and despite her dreams, she never wanted to make them unhappy.

As she struggles to recreate the Egg Roll Omelette that she first had at the Sushi shop where she conceived her desire to become a sushi chef, Hanaya decides to help Hayato with his baking. And when they pass that exam, he decides to return the favor and help her discover the Egg Roll Omelette that she loved so much. But will the unexpected ending of that cooking help bring them closer together? And what happens if they really do fall in love with each other? Who will lose out on the deal?

Like I said, when the reader can see a solution to the problems of the pair in the Shojo romance manga long before the characters can, that's not a good thing. In the first volume, because it's told almost entirely from Hanaya's point of view, Hanaya comes off looking bad and heartless, that she'd consider dating a boy just to be able to be a sushi chef. But now we see that Hayato is just as heartless- he went into the relationship for the same reason she did. And when it looks like neither will back down from their dreams, well, they decide to break up.

But the bond of wanting to be something they aren't brings them together, and each can help the other with their dream, so as they struggle to find someone to marry to each fulfill their dreams, they start getting closer and closer, almost acting more loverly than they did when they were actually dating each other! Is this a good thing or a bad thing, and will any feelings for each other be dismissed when they want their dreams more than love with another person?

Readers may start the volume thinking that Hanaya doesn't deserve Hayato, but it's soon revealed that each really deserves each other. There is something kind of off-putting in how each so easily decides to use the other. But I hope that the characters become more sympathetic in time. Some parts of their "romance" are sickening, but we can hope they make more of an actual connection later. Recommended, but be warned that this series may turn you off at first.

Mixed Vegetables, Volume 1 by Ayumi Komura

Hanaya Ashitaba is studying the culinary arts at the Oikawa High School cooking department, but her ambitions aren't what her peers think. Yes, she is the heir to the celebrated Ashitaba Patisserie, but her true ambition is to become a sushi chef. Unfortunately, she is the main heir to her family's restaurant, and the only other choice, her younger brother, is all set out to become a big name in baseball.

But Hanaya has a plan to deal with her problems. Also in her school is Hayato Hyuga, the heir to the prestigious Sushi Hyuga, and Hanaya dreams of marrying him and taking over her husband's sushi restaurant. Now all she has to do is get him interested in her, and learning slicing and chopping skills from him is one way to go about it.

Hayato Hyuga has dreams of his own, though, and even though he is the only heir to his family's sushi empire, he wants to fulfill his dream... of becoming a world-famous pastry chef! And to do that, he'll do anything, even romance and marry Hanaya Ashitaba. Especially when he becomes aware of who she is and that she seems to be interested in him. But neither have any real romantic feelings for each other, and both are only interested in each other for ulterior reasons.

But first, both of them have to pass their examinations to even begin to become any kind of chef, let alone sushi chefs and cake bakers. But can either of them see beyond the bright futures they dream for themselves or will their dreams make them unable to see the here and now? What would happen if they had to give up what they wanted most?

Hanaya, though, is having second feelings about what she is doing to Hayato. Is it dishonest to be in a relationship when all you want to do is marry into a family just so you can cook the food you want to cook? Does Hayato feel the same way, and how would be react if Hanaya confessed all to him? Does Hanaya have the kind of cast-iron heart that would allow her to mislead a boy she is actually coming to feel something for? Or will her newly tender emotions allow her to go on with her dishonest relationship?

This is a cute book about a couple who each wants what they will never get from their family: a chance to cook food that their family-owned businesses *don"t* specialize in. Each of them sails into a relationship with the other with the intent of deceiving each other into thinking they are interested for themselves, and not just for where they see themselves working. Regardless of your feelings on their deceptions, I could see a solution right from the start: Marry, combine the businesses, and each work in the other's section of the business.

And when the reader can see an almost immediate solution to the problem and the characters can't, I consider that a bad thing, because it means that the characters are a little stupid, which makes me care less about them. But as the story went on, I found myself in sympathy with both characters, especially that Hanaya is so uncomfortable with what she is doing to Hayato. Even if it's somewhat cliché that the girl is the more emotional one of the pair, it also shows she can't be as coldhearted as all that.

So, despite my initial feelings about the manga, I did find myself enjoying it. I only hope this isn't a story that's going to drag on and on. I want to see some closure fairly soon, and I hope I'll get it. I'd definitely recommend this manga to anyone who enjoys cooking or romance, since I have the feeling that Hanaya and Hayato will end up together, sooner rather than later. I just hope the story doesn't get stupid in the meantime.

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Volume 28 by CLAMP

Syaoran is facing off against Fei-Wang Reed when it becomes apparent that his clone is being used by the magician to power a spell to save Yuko, the Time-Space Witch. Before she opened a shop in Tokyo that everyone came to, she was loved by Fei-Wang, and when she died, he was desperate to save her, so he cast a spell to hold her frozen in time. While it was in place, she was able to operate the shop and help those who needed her, like Syaoran and Sakura and their companions.

But with the end of the spell, she at long last faces true dissolution and death, and Fei-Wang, having truly loved her, is desperate to try and get her back. So he reveals that he has not only cloned Syaoran, but Sakura as well, and he is using their magic to try and find her again within the multiverse and bring her back to be his love. But one of the reasons he has for doing so is to prove himself the greatest magician in the multiverse, better than Clow Reed, and because of that, it seems that Yuko no longer loves him, if she ever did- because he is not the man he was.

When she disappears, presumably for good, he seems to go a little insane, but Syaoran and Sakura fight him at that moment, and Yuko appears to their clones, telling them that because they are clones, they can come back from death and choose to be reborn on another world. They do so, and grow up apart, Sakura in Japan and Syaoran in Hong Kong, so that when Sakura's school travels to Hong Kong on a class trip, they meet again and are allowed to marry and live out their love. Sakura becomes pregnant, and their child, their son, becomes the real Syaoran, the one who travels to the Kingdom of the Clow and meets the real Sakura, falling in love with her and giving up his life on earth to try and prevent her from losing her soul in the first place.

But his absence must be made up somehow, and Watanuki Kimihiro takes Syaoran's place on earth, and eventually meets Yuko, becoming her servant to try and take away his ability to see spirits. When she is freed from the spell that held her after death, he also takes her place as the owner of the shop, and the souls of the Clone Syaoran and Sakura are put into an item in the shop, becoming that which powers the shop. But when Fei Wang finds them, he makes them fade away, leaving behind two feathers. This draws the real Syaoran and Watanuki into the space in time where they were being held by Fei Wang, and both must sacrifice something to escape. Watanuki gives up his ability to leave the shop and Syaoran must give up something similar.

But will Syaoran be forever alone, and will he and Sakura ever be free to just live out their lives together in peace and happiness? And what will become of Fei-Wang and his machinations? Will Yuko ever return to see Watanuki again? And what did the manga all mean?

Wow. This manga was one of the densest and twistiest of all the manga I have ever read. Its plot was incredibly convoluted, even by CLAMP standards, and the ending volume, this one, was long and sometimes hard to parse. So much was going on, and the fighting scenes had so many wavy lines that it was more than occasionally hard to figure out what was happening, and what the panels meant. It's also a rather recursive manga, in that the story wraps around to near the beginning in a way, but the universe it is happening in is changed due to the actions of the main characters.

Even the ending of the manga insinuates that more is or will be happening, as the ending words are "And the Adventure Continues...", which is fine for a recursive manga, but it makes the reader have to determine what is the true happy ending for him or herself. The ending of XXXHolic implies that the sacrifices that both Watanuki and Syaoran made were not permanent, but the timeline of that ending makes it still seem like something of a tragedy.

This is the ending of the series, and it completely fulfills everything readers may have wanted in an ending, with a lot more that might not make them very happy. But it's a series that takes a long time to parse and understand, and the ending will be something that readers will chew on for days, if not longer. This is also a very large, long volume, almost 300 pages, and the story serves up both ending and mindscrews enough to make you scream, while also making you want to scream for more yet. Recommended, although not a very easy read.

Kobato, Volume 2 by CLAMP

Kobato has a wish, and to fulfill it, she must collect an entire bottle full of pieces of broken hearts that she has healed. While the first part of her journey involved proving she understood certain human customs well enough to her mentor/guardian, Iyorogi, now that she actually has the bottle, she has to go around healing human hearts. Her first attempts at trying to find humans whose hearts needed healing was disastrous, to say the least, and now that she has found employment working for the grade school teacher Sayaka, she hopes to soon fill her bottle and have her wish granted.

But healing human hearts is a perilous business, and by no means as simple and easy as Kobato seems to think it might be. She thinks that simply working for Kobato will be enough, but when several days pass by and no broken heart pieces end up in her bottle, she thinks that this is going to take a while.

But the grade school has problems that might be greater than anything that Kobato can heal. For one thing, strange men show up at the school, claiming that they are there to collect on a debt. It turns out that the debt is Sayaka's, as she borrowed money from a moneylender to open the school, and because the school is so small and has so few students, she is unable to pay back the money she owes. And the moneylender seems to have ties to criminal families or mobs, and so he is resorting to extortion and threatening the kids she teaches to make her pay up or abandon the school, which she is unwilling to do.

The only person that seems to be on Sayaka's side is Fujimoto, who also happens to be Kobato's neighbor where she is living. He's sarcastic and playfully torments Kobato when she is even one and a half minutes late to work at the school, but Sayaka tells Kobato that if he really hated her, as Kobato believes, he would completely ignore her and not speak to her at all. It seems that he works at several jobs in addition to his job at the school, but we don't learn why.

Kobato earns her first pieces of broken heart when she speaks to one of the children at school after all the others have left for the day. He is waiting for his mother, who must support herself and him with a job, to pick him up. This makes everyone think that she must be a bad mother, but when Kobato tells him she thinks his mother is a wonderful mother, that is enough to heal his broken heart.

Kobato still wants to heal Sayaka's broken heart, but when Kobato suggests having a school bazaar, where the students bring in junk lying around their houses to sell and donate the money to the school, will that be enough to earn the money that Sayako owes? And when someone goes around changing the signs for the bazaar to make people think that the school's sale is next week, can Kobato inform everyone and save the day? And can she figure out what the sadness that Fujimoto hides is as well?

Well, another volume, with no real sign of who or what Kobato is or what she wants, but with plenty of background not only on the school that Kobato is working for, and Sayaka, who owns it, but also Chitose, her landlady, and her family. By finding a kitten that was abandoned, she gives the girls a pet, and receives a futon for her troubles. But the troubles at the school will resist such an easy solution. So how will she resolve them?

I liked to see Kobato finally getting pieces of the broken hearts in her flask/jar, although the wish that she wants is still not stated, nor is who or what she is and where is from ever stated. In fact, this story focusses far more on the people, like Sayaka, who Kobato is helping than Kobato herself. While this is good, it often seems that information doled out about Kobato comes in drops from an eyedropper, and the other characters get more time than she does. For this reason, I suspect that we won't find out all about Kobato until the final or penultimate volume in this series.

I like this series a lot, and Kobato is a strange and interesting character. The lack of information we get about her, and about her wish, make her even more interesting, as she becomes much of an enigma, and the little information we do know about her (that she is collecting pieces of broken hearts to fulfill a wish to go somewhere she very much wants to go), only make her that much more intriguing. I find myself wanting to read and learn more, and to know if she will manage to save the school somehow. I recommend this book, and this series.

Kobato, Volume 1 by CLAMP

Kobato Hanato is a young girl with a very clear wish, and she can have it granted, but to do so, she needs to fulfill a quest. The first is to understand society and its mores to get a special jar, which she will then have to fill with the pieces of broken hearts that she has mended. But to do that, first she has to get points to earn the jar from her trainer, which takes the form of a stuffed animal named Iyorogi-san, who is there to help her learn human customs.

Her first mission is to help someone by taking out the trash. But when she sees an admonition to help cut down on waste by cutting down on the amount of trash, she decides to offer the trash to the crows she sees, causing them to attack her and Iyorogi. Next, she attempts to help out a stall owner in serving his food to his customers, but when someone asks her to help cook their hot pot meal, can the inexperienced Kobato create something delicious, or will her attempt end in disaster?

At Christmas, she gets a job helping to sell Christmas cake from a bakery, but when her efforts get her the very last cake for her own, will she and Iyorogi end up eating it, or will she give it away to a woman who missed getting a cake that her daughter wants very much? New Years Day brings Kobato into the service of a female fortune-teller, who she spends the day with after helping the woman set out a lucky plant. But can a day of fun really gain her any points for understanding the holiday?

February brings Valentine's Day, and when Kobato finds some chocolates lost by a schoolteacher, can she find the woman to give them back, or will she end up enjoying them by herself? Next is the cherry blossom festival, where Kobato must show that she understands the holiday. But when she is asked to sing by the viewing party she joins, will her singing make or break their experience?

The comes a rainy day. When Kobato nearly loses her hat, her journey to get her wish granted nearly ends. But when the umbrella she was lent is taken, can Kobato make it up, or will she end the day badly? Summer brings heat, and Iyorogi wants beer. Can Kobato find him what he wants, and what is the wish that Kobato wants to make? Where does she want to go so badly, and will she ever get there?

However, now that she has gotten the bottle, finding wounded hearts to heal isn't so easy, nor is the act of fixing them. When Kobato attempts to go at her mission in a straightforward manner, she is nearly picked up for a day of sex by a businessman, but she is rescued by a short-tempered man who thinks that she is no better than a prostitute. But when she is hired by that man's friend, a female grade school teacher, to help out at her school, are prospects looking up for Kobato?

I liked this manga. The books themselves are rather short, but the story is first rate, and while the tasks that Kobato sets out on are rather straightforward (understanding aspects of human society), the reasons why she is on this quest in the first place, and what Kobato is are by no means so clear. In just the first volume, we are introduced to the mystery of why her hat is so important, and where she wants to go so badly. I personally think that perhaps she is a ghost or some kind of animal that has been given human form, and that if she loses her hat, she will revert to whatever she was before with no way of going back.

We also get to wonder what her guardian/taskmaster Iyorogi is. Although he looks like a stuffed animal, he can speak, and at one point he fights with another, more animal-looking spirit creature that can also talk. Although the fight gives us some information (that Iyorogi is the same kind of spirit animal as the one he is fighting, he has taken on this appearance with his guardianship of Kobato, and that he and the other thing are rivals or foes), it never tells us what he really is. Also, the place where Kobato wants to go is concealed, and may be something like heaven or a place like a human life. Again, it is discussed, but Iyorogi cuts her off before she can completely express her wish, so it still remains a mystery.

These mysteries and the simple but charming story intrigue me and make me want to read more. I like the way the story keeps you guessing, and i love the art and the characters. I really want to see where this is going and what Kobato is and what her wish is. Simple, but deep at the same time. Highly recommended.

Otomen, Volume 9 by Aya Kanno

Asuka Masamune is an Otomen, a manly man who has girly interests. In his case, it is sewing, cooking and cleaning, but he also likes reading Shojou manga. He isn't the only Otomen at his school, though- his friend Kitora Kurokawa is interested in flowers, and his rival and sometimes friend Hajime Tonomine is an absolute wizard with makeup and can make any woman look her best. His friend and classmate Yamato Ariake has manly interests, but he just looks very girly, and he is picked on and sometimes rejected because of those looks, which he cannot help.

In the last volume, Asuka's mother returned to Japan and discovered that Asuka wasn't the only guy with girly interests in his school. Since her husband left her with the words that he always dreamed of becoming a woman, she freaked out and took control of the school board with one mission- to wipe out any Otomen or boys with girly interests in Asuka's school, Ginyuri. But when Asuka, Juta and Ryo show up, they are completely surprised by the change in the student body- everyone seems to be following the new rules!

That's when they find out that Asuka's mother has stacked the deck. Rumors are going around that anyone who scrupulously keeps to the new rules and embodies them will receive free tuition and increased grades. But there is more. At school assembly, some of the teachers have been fired to make room for new ones, and a special task force to ensure that the students are hewing to the new regulations are announced. Anyone who is found violating the new school rules can be expelled, and anything that violates the rules can be taken away. Kitora is despondent that the school has closed his garden, and will be using it for their "ideal woman" training program. And Yamato has been told that his face violates school rules, so he is planning to get a buzz cut to make himself look more manly.

But when the man that his mother has put in charge of the school, Asuka's cousin, Kasuga, has a reason of his own to dislike Otomen, going back to when he and Asuka were just children. Kasuga hates Asuka and means to bring him, and all his friends, down. But when he takes Juta's manga ideas book, he works out that Juta is actually the manga-ka known as Jewel Sachihana, the creator of Asuka's favorite Shoujo manga, Love Chick. Determined to use this knowledge to drive Juta out of school he confronts Asuka's friend, and Asuka decides that he will defend Juta's good name by getting Jewel Sachihana to show up in the same room as Juta, thus proving his friend's innocence! Little does Asuka know that not only is Juta really Jewel, but that he is using Asuka and Ryo's romance as the basis for his manga.

But how can Asuka get the "real" Jewel Sachihana to show up and meet Kasuga when Juta is really jewel? And can he save the day by manufacturing an authentic "jewel" for Kasuga to meet when Jewel fails to show up and the other girl standing in for Jewel fails to know the character of the manga-ka well enough to meet Kasuga's high standards?

Meanwhile, Ryo, a very tomboyish girl with manly interests, evokes the interest of one of the new teachers hired by Kasuga, a woman named Otowa Moematsu. She is so girly and feminine that at her last teaching job, she actually had students coming to blows over who had her affections. She attempts to teach all the girls at Ginyuri how to be feminine, but completely fails with Ryo. In attempting to prove her message that a manly girl will never attract a manly man, she runs into the little roadblock that Ryo is already in a relationship with Asuka Masamune, one of the most manly appearing guys at the school. Otowa is offended by the idea and schemes to steal Asuka away from Ryo to prove her point. But will she succeed at stealing Asuka's affections?

So the pressure is being ramped up at school, and I was amused at how much of the names used in this volume reflected Japanese ideas about sex and attraction. Yuri, part of the name of the school, is also a word used to describe a romance between two women (as opposed to Yaoi for two men) and Moe is a kind of attractiveness often characterized as "adorable" or "cute". Especially because Ginyuri is merely a rearranged Ginryu, a word that seems to be everywhere in manga and anime, and that Otowa might be pretty, but she is the least Moe character I have ever seen.

In fact, she is actually very repulsive, not necessarily in looks, but in attitude. As she is the first new teacher character that the series has focussed on, I don't wonder that the rest of her fellow teachers are going to be equally bad and repulsive, just in different ways- it's already stated that each of them was considered very much unemployable by other schools due to events in their pasts and past employment histories. I can see them eventually being defeated in their aims by Asuka and his friends, but given the rate at which things are happening, this will probably take a while. This is good for me, and other readers, because I am really enjoying this series, but given that I want a happy ending for Asuka and Ryo, this is bad for the characters.

I really love this series and how they explore the conflict between what society says people should be and what we want for ourselves and our interests. Japan is the perfect place to explore such contrasts as Japanese society comes down much more strongly on the "fit in and conform" side of the equation, whereas America is much more for individual choice and preference. Seeing how these things work out in a society so different to our own is fascinating, and I can't wait to read more. Highly recommended.

Otomen, Volume 8 by Aya Kanno

Asuka Masamune is an Otomen, a manly guy who loves feminine things, especially cooking and sewing. He tried to hide what he was when he was growing up, because his father left his mother after confessing that he always wanted to be a woman, and his mother freaked out over the news, so she made Asuka promise to always be a manly man. However, when Asuka met his classmate Ryo Miyakozuka, a very tomboyish girl, he feel in love with her, and her acceptance made him let out his inner Otomen.

Now, however, Asuka has discovered that Ryo is going to be switching schools, because her grandfather has fallen sick and she needs to go to Fukuoka, where he lives, to look after him. Her father wants her grandfather to live with them, but her grandfather staunchly refuses, and he needs to be looked after, so Ryo has volunteered to do so. Asuka is saddened, but their mutual friend Juta Tachibana has an idea- since there are only five days left until Ryo leaves, why not make her last days as fun as possible? So Asuka, Juta, their Flower Otomen friend Kitora Kurokawa and the girly-looking guy Yamato Ariake each plan one day of fun to bid goodbye to Ryo.

Yamato calls on the band Fra Fra to sing her a goodbye concert with himself as front-man, Kitora plans a day of planting flowers in the school garden in a pattern that forms the words "Welcome back" so that the flowers can greet her on her return, Juta plans a day at an amusement park and Asuka, knowing Ry's preferences, plans a day of training in the mountains. But when a bear appears ready to attack Ryo and Asuka, can Asuka defeat the bear with his offering of a teddy that he was planning on giving Ryo at the end of the day?

After she leaves for the semester, Asuka rubs along as best he can, but by the time of the winter break, he decides to spend it with Ryo at her Grandfather's house in Fukuoka. Her grandfather has a secret of his own, however, and it is behind the reason why he doesn't want to come to live with Ryo and her father. But can Asuka, with his talent for cooking and cleaning, discover her grandfather's secret and dissolve his resistance to coming back to Tokyo to live with Ryo and her father?

Meanwhile, Hajime Tonomine makes a connection with a girl with no ability to apply makeup online, and helps her through e-mail to try and get her ready for a big date that she is planning to meet a man she has never met in person. But when he meets a girl in the city who wears so much makeup she looks like a clown, is it the same girl he is schooling online, and can he help her tone down her look to make herself pretty?

And, after Ryo returns home, Asuka and his friends, including his rival and sometimes friend Hajime Tonomine, a makeup Otomen, throw a party to welcome her back. But Asuka's mother shows up first, and she is unhappy with the "corruption" she senses in her son and his friends, and takes control of the school board to deal with the "corruption" in its students. But what will this mean for Asuka and his friends?

I love this series, which is about the conflict in people between what society and family often expects of people, and their actual feelings and interests. Men are supposed to be strong and manly and women are supposed to be lovely, yielding and feminine, but people often have interests and talents outside what society thinks as strictly masculine or feminine traits. The question is, will you let society dictate what you like and your interests, or will you reject society's rules and do what you like anyway? That's a question that all the characters in the book have to deal with in their own way. Even Ryo, who is more interested in things that are masculine, like fighting and martial arts, has to deal with going against these expectations- but she doesn't reject the more traditional feminine qualities, she simply has no talent for them, which I suspect goes back partly to her upbringing by her very masculine father.

This is becoming more and more of a thread in this manga, and I suspect, given the last story, that matters are going to come to a head with Asuka's mother and her expectations. But this volume does introduce someone who might be on Asuka's side, if things get really bad. I just hope that this character will appear again, as they can show Asuka's mother that one can be manly and still indulge a softer, feminine side as well. I hope this character wasn't just a throwaway introduction, and that they actually do appear again.

This volume was wonderful, and I loved it a lot. In fact, this is one of the better manga out there, and I like the message it sends, that you should accept all the parts of yourself and your likes, no matter if society approves of them or not. I do hope the manga goes for many more volumes, but at the same time, I want Asuka's mother to be able to accept him and his likes at some point as well. I know she is set up as the main antagonist for the series, and once she is able to accept Asuka, the series is over. But I can still hope. Highly recommended.

Songs to Make You Smile by Natsuki Takaya

Natsuki Takaya is the manga-ka who created the hit series "Fruits Basket", which remains one of my favorite manga ever. Now, she has published a series of short romantic stories that are mostly not tied to any of her previous works, except for the one at the end, and it is a side work to her series "Tsubasa: Those with Wings".

"Songs to Make You Smile" tells the story of Takahashi, a boy who is the front man for a band, and who also writes all their songs. He and his band are scheduled to play at the school festival, but those who know him think it is unusual for him to be the lead singer of the band, mainly because he's shy and quiet and most of the time seems to have a rather mean expression on his face. But inside, Takahashi is merely thoughtful, and he has feelings for Anzu Nakata, the cousin of one of his bandmates. He met her when they were in middle school and he loved her for her joyful smile. But when he met her again in High School, he found her quiet, sad and reserved because the other girls were teasing her to the point of abuse. But how far will Takahashi go to make her smile again? And will Anzu return his feelings for her?

"Ding Dong" tells the story of Chisato, a girl who has recently lost her father and is struggling through life with her stepmother. She lost her mother when she was young, and was raised by her father, who was cold and distant to her. Now that he is gone, she wonders why her father never seemed to love her, and she struggles with the idea that she is unworthy of the love of others, and how her father could love her stepmother and show her the emotions he never showed to his own daughter. But it takes the words of Takahiro, a boy she is developing feelings for, to show her that sometimes love doesn't leave evidence behind. Can Chisato find the evidence that her father loved her, and admit her feelings for others?

"Voice of Mine" is the tale of Shu Inugaki, the musical violin prodigy son of two very prominent and talented musicians. He is so gifted that even though he is a first year student, many other students assume that the only reason why he wins competitions and awards is because of the influence of his parents, their money and their names. But when he meets Futaba, a female viola player with problems of her own, he can tell that, she isn't copying anyone else's style, she plays in her own. But like Shu, her classmates accuse her of having no talent and copying their style to get ahead. Can the two of them reinforce each other to stop listening to their detractors and be happy with what they already have?

"Double Flower" tells the tale of Tachibana, a boy whose love and talent lie with needle-crafts, so much so that he's left school to start working at them, supplying a small store in the city. But when his niece Aya comes to stay with him after a falling-out with her parents, she questions his masculinity for loving sewing and his choice of careers. But when even she starts to realize the depths of his talent and dedication, can she help him admit his feelings for the daughter of the shopkeepers he works for? Or will Aya end up wanting him for herself?

And in the backup story, Princess Dark Black, the Princess of the title is beautiful, but her attitude doesn't endear her to the people she lives with or rules. When her stepmother and father get fed up with her attitude, they decide to have her killed in the forest, only for the Princess to overcome the hunter and decide to go on an adventure to find a handsome Prince to take her away and marry her. When she ends up at the house of a Dwarf instead, she decides to stay with her, making the Dwarf work hard to support her and her endless demands. But when she eats a poisoned apple, will the Prince that shows up want her or the hard-working but Pretty Dwarf who has labored hard to support her? And can this fractured fairy tale have a happy ending? or will Princess Dark Black remain as she is forever?

I loved this manga, as the stories have the same sort of charm that Fruits Basket did, with a sort of gentle charm that shows that love doesn't just go to the beautiful and popular people, and that romance is rarely as straightforward as we wish it to be. There are also many of the same themes that showed up in Fruits Basket, like abusive teasing, people considered unmasculine for their hobbies, and that romance is rarely just confessing to someone that you like them and having them return that affection. Sometimes you have to work for it, and there is also a strong thread of discovering your strengths and talents before being able to connect with someone on a genuine emotional level.

Out of all the stories in this volume, my favorite was "Voice of Mine", as it really resonated with me that sometimes, you can't listen to the echo chamber of other people telling you that you suck, because they aren't telling you how you really feel out of misplaced jealousy or aggression. But it was a hard choice to narrow it down to just one favorite story because all of them are so good. The only one that felt out of place was Princess Dark Black because it was less a romance story and more a comedy story, so it felt very out of place and different from the others. But it's nice to know that Natsuki Takaya can do comedy as well as gentle, beautiful romance.

I loved this manga, and I think that anyone who sighed over Fruits Basket and enjoyed the story will most definitely enjoy this volume as well. Each of the stories is different, but many evoke the same beautiful, nostalgic feeling of first love and teenage emotions. I highly recommend this volume, and I am actually going to seek it out for myself to add to my collection. Sweet and beautiful.

The Lost by J.D. Robb, Patricia Gaffney, Mary Blaney and Ruth Ryan Langan

The Lost is a collection of short stories, each involving someone or something being lost, and how it becomes found again.

"Missing in Death" by J.D. Robb takes Detective Eve Dallas to a possible murder scene on the Staten Island Ferry. Two women are missing, one is dead, and the murderer is nowhere to be found. But even when one of the missing women turns up to be reunited with her family, she isn't aware that any time has passed since she disappeared on her way to use the bathroom. Nor can she remember anything about what happened during the missing time, or how all that blood got into the bathroom.

It turns out that the missing woman, now presumed dead, was a corporate spy and assassin. She has a history of protecting people and inventions for corporations, and stealing the inventors and their inventions of other corporations. But it seemed that this time, she was onto something that could have been seriously lucrative in terms of profit- a toy that could erase people's memories, either temporarily or permanently. But who killed her, and what happened to the device she wanted to sell?

"The Dog Days of Laurie Summer" by Patricia Gaffney puts Laurie Summer, a workaholic executive, into the body of a stray female dog after she hits her head on a rock in a stream. Adopted by her husband and son, she works hard to keep her family together and keep her husband out of the arms of a woman whose son is a friend of her own. Because her body is in the hospital in a coma, she tries to protect her husband from a woman she sees as getting too close to the man she loves, and who might take her place if she never comes out of her coma.

But when she learns to take life more easy as a dog, she is also forced to look at how she spent so little time with her family, and wonder how it could be different. But what will it take to get her out of the body of the dog and back into her own? Can she save the woman she thinks is hot for her husband, or will she discover that even though Monica seems perfect, she has demons of her own?

"Lost in Paradise" by Mary Blaney takes the former nun Isabelle Reynaud to a small island in the Lesser Antilles named Isla Perdida. Isabelle is there to help the owner of the island, Sebastian Dushayne, by breaking a curse laid on him by his former mother-in-law, whose daughter died in an attempt to reach Sebastian during the storm season when he demanded she come home immediately. Sebastian can no longer leave the island, and no longer believes in God.

Isabelle is there partly to open a medical clinic, and to sing for Sebastian, who loves music. He believes himself to be a hard, cold, pitiless man, but his relationship with the children of the island, who he loves and has done so much for, say that view is a lie. Can the relationship between Isabelle and Sebastian save him when an injured child must be rushed to the mainland to save it from death? Can Sebastian be freed of his curse?

"Legacy" by Ruth Ryan Langan takes Aidan O'Mara from her home in America to Ireland to meet a possible grandfather that she has never met or had knowledge of. Her grandmother once loved Cullen Glin, until her father separated them, and made her marry another man. They soon moved to America, leaving Cullen alone. He had been poor, but made a fortune, and never loved another. But now Aidan is alone, all her relatives dead, and her mother, who recently died, was so sick for so long that Aidan left her job to nurse her. With no job prospect, and no money, she reluctantly takes the money that Cullen Glin offers for a visit and to determine if they really are related.

But in Ireland, she finds her attention held much more by Ross Delaney, Cullen Glin's solicitor and right-hand man than by her supposed grandfather or his mansion or the people of the town. But will she be so desperate not to take away Ross's own inheritance from Cullen that she rejects his love to return to her own life? Or can Ross convince her to stay with him and be his wife?

As with a lot of short story collections, this one consists of four stories. What can be a problem is that often, one of the stories may not really fit in with the theme of the rest. Sometimes, one story, while ostensibly about the same theme as the rest, is so out of tone with the other stories that it, stylistically speaking, sticks out like a sore thumb. Luckily, this book didn't have that problem. Each of the stories, while different from the others, all shared the same sort of tone, so that none of them seemed wildly out of place.

And regardless of tone or other problems, there will always be one author who is the reason for buying the book. In this case, that would be J.D. Robb, also known as Nora Roberts. Her Eve Dallas stories are wonderful, and I really enjoyed it. In fact, I think it was the best story in the book. I also liked the "Dog Days" story by Patricia Gaffney as something that really went above and beyond the bounds of a good story. Those were the two best stories in this collection. Not to fault the last two, but they were more cookie-cutter romance stories, nothing that we haven't really seen before. Well-done, certainly, but compared to the first two stories, well, there is a reason they are last in the book. Enjoyable, but no more than that.

So, as a whole, this book is very well done in tone and stories. While not all of them will make you sit up and take notice, there are enough really good stories in this book to make it well worth the money to buy, or to make you seek it out in the library. Well-done and a cut above the usual romance short story collection. Highly recommended.

The Dark Hunters, Volume 4 by Sherrilyn Kenyon and art by Claudia Campos

This manga is a version of the Sherrilyn Kenyon book "Night Embrace". Talon is a Dark- Hunter who meets and falls in love with a human. The Dark-Hunter's name is Talon, and he has attracted the bad attention of Camulus, a Celtic God whose son he slew in battle centuries ago. And now that Talon has finally fallen in love with the human artist known as Sunshine, Camulus has the perfect target to take out his vengeance on.

And New Orleans is suffering from an influx of Daimons, and Acheron, the leader of the Dark-Hunters, has called them all together to fight the Daimons. But someone is impersonating Ash, and since Acheron wears dark glasses all the time to hide that he has eyes of a solid silver color, it's almost impossible to tell them apart. Luckily for Talon, two Weres, Fang Kattalakis and his brother Vane are in the city to protect their sister, Anya, who is pregnant and close to giving birth. While they aren't vampires or Dark Hunters, they don't like Daimons either, and they agree to help Ash, and Talon, should they need help.

And since Talon must avoid the sun during the day, Vane and Fang are the ones he calls on to keep watch on Sunshine when she needs to travel the city during the day, since Talon can't be there to protect her. But when Sunshine is snatched, Talon needs the help of Ash and the Kattalakis brothers to get her back. Afterwards, Sunshine meets her grandmother, who gives her a talisman to protect her. But how can a mortal magical trinket protect the vulnerable Sunshine from a very pissed-off God?

And Talon has an ace in the hole, the spirit of his dead sister, slaughtered at the same time as Talon, named Ceara. Ceara has kept watch over Talon, whose real name is Speirr, ever since they were killed together. And now she has agreed to be reborn, because Sunshine is the spirit of Talon's dead wife Nynia reborn, and now that he has her again, he no longer needs Ceara. But Talon is afraid of hurting her when he is killed either by the Daimons or Camulus, and he tries to get her love killed by Eros, whose lead-tipped arrows can destroy love. Except, it seems, when it is true love, and Sunshine's love is true.

But how can Talon keep Sunshine safe and survive to build a life of love with her? And will Sunshine risk losing her artistic talent forever to return Talon's soul, kept by Artemis, to his body? And how can he live without Sunshine, if he will outlive her merely human lifespan? Is there any way these two lovers can find happiness together?

I picked this up based on title alone, not realizing that it was merely the manga-ization of one of the already-existing Sherrilyn Kenyon books. And to be honest, this is probably the last series I would ever want to be done as a manga. Why? Because Sherrilyn Kenyon's heroes are men. Manly men, not the sort of man-boys that manga holds up as the epitome of male beauty. I mean, yes, the characters are all very handsome men, but not pretty-boys. And that's exactly what the artist turns the characters into, which was a complete betrayal of the kind of characters that the Dark-Hunters are.

All of the characters in this book look like they are in their late teens at best, and are all long and willowy-looking. Again, far from what the characters are supposed to look like in their respective books. We're talking about manly guys in their 20's, not teen wannabees. And that just stuck in my craw. Like I said, this series is the last one I would consider turning into a manga, because the characters in it are the least compatible with the Anime style. It turns into some horrible car crash of a great story with art that is totally in opposition to how the characters are supposed to look.

If you want to read the real deal, go for the original novel, Night Embrace, and give this series a miss. You miss out on a lot of the story, and unless you are a besotted teen looking for new anime men to swoon over, there is really no need to look this one up. I mean, when the main character doesn't look any older than Ash's squire Nick, who really is a teenager, you know something is wrong. Avoid and find the real book.

Mirror's Edge by Rhianna Pratchett and Matthew Dow Smith

Mercury is a runner, a message deliverer who travels across the tops of buildings, living in the city, but not actually a part of it, or of most of the people who call it home. So when he comes home one day and finds a strange young woman attempting to steal his television, he gets into a fight with her, and when she realizes that escape is not an option, he offers her a job, doing the same thing that he does.

But this woman, known as Faith, has larger secrets than anyone knows, and when she accidentally sees a package being delivered by another runner, she recognizes the face in the pictures as that of her father- a physician who ran a movement known as Libertas, one who opposed the loss of freedoms that living in the city would entail. Her father, Abe Connors, was betrayed and his movement destroyed and banned. Most people think Abe Connors dead, but in reality, he went into hiding after the destruction of Libertas and the death of his wife.

Faith, and her sister Kate were left to live with their father, but Faith was closer to their mother, and shortly afterwards, she left home, taking along with her a box her mother had left her. While Faith was struggling to survive on the streets, and elsewhere, Kate joined the city and entered the police force. But still, Kate knows more about their mutual father than Faith does. So Faith has to be careful in talking with her sister, as her sister could arrest her for merely being in the city.

But Faith isn't the only one after her father. The question is: why? And who is it behind the search for her father. Or is it her father that these people are really after? Faith must visit her childhood home, due to be destroyed in a matter of hours, to search for clues that her mother might have left behind before her death. But was her mother's death something to do with the technology she was working on, or was her mother killed to punish her father? And can Faith elude the men pursuing her father and find out what is going on before someone kills her father or her?

I never played the Mirror's Edge videogame, but I was told by friends who had that it didn't have much of a story, it was pretty much a parkour fest, with little or no story included. I don't know if this book is meant to be the story behind the game (since Faith only gets her tats during the course of the story), or it was meant to be a prequel, but either way, it makes a lot of story that the game didn't have.

But the problem with the comic, that, either as backstory or prequel, nothing is really wrapped up at the end of the comic. Faith gets her arm tat, and the story just ends, with nothing really resolved. I know there is going to be another game, but if it is as story-free as the first game, where does that leave the ending of the story? We're still not sure what Faith's mother's connection to the events are. Did she develop the circuit, or just perfect it, and why was she working on the circuit, anyhow? Was it for money, or blackmail?

I found this an interesting comic, but the ending left me unsatisfied. I wanted to see and read more, to find out the ending, and I don't think either of the games will satisfy me on this point, from what I heard of the first game. I am wondering if they are planning another comic series/graphic novel to fill in the gaps. All together, the ending wasn't all that satisfying, but the story is interesting. Recommended, but not highly, as the ending may leave you unsatisfied.

Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Volume 4 by Hiroyuki Asada

Lag Seeing, a young man with a piece of Spirit Amber for an eye, has become a Letter Bee, someone who keeps hope alive in a world without a sun by delivering letters that come from the heart of the sender to the heart of the receiver. Lag became a bee to be like his idol, the Letter Bee known as Gauche Suede. But by the time he reached the capitol with his Dingo, or guard, Niche, Gauche had left the letter bee service and disappeared, leaving behind only his sister, Sylvette, who was born crippled, and now takes in lodgers to keep herself alive.

But Lag swore to Sylvette that he would find Gauche and bring him home, and she believed him, finally having hope for the first time that her brother disappeared. To aid Lag, she gives him Gauche's old gun, the Nocturne No. 20, through which he can fire his amber bullets and defeat the Gaichuu, insect-like monsters that prey on people's hearts.Now, Lag is about to start his first real day on the job, and Sylvette makes sure he has everything he needs. Niche has a complaint, though- Sylvette took her underpants that Lag gave her and washed them, and gave her another pair to wear in the meantime, and they are too close-fitting.

But Lag has a very disconcerting encounter with another Letter Bee named Moc Sullivan, who only delivers the actual letter and never reveals the heart inside them. He tells Lag that it's all the job requires- delivering letters. Any more than that is just stupid. Now, Lag has a letter to deliver from the writer, Vincent Olcott, to his mother. But Lag is upset when he learns that Vincent is writing lies to his mother in his letters. In truth, Vincent's heart is good. He's lying to his mother because he doesn't want her to worry about what is happening to him in the city.

But when Lag goes to deliver the letter, he wonders how much heart there can be in a letter full of lies. Once he gets to his destination, he finds that Vincent's mother lives outside of town, on a mesa connected to the rest of the land by a single rope bridge. Lag finds himself sweating and almost unable to face the journey over the heights. When the woman he is to deliver the letter to shows up to greet him, he is happy that he won't have to traverse any more of the bridge. But when a Gaichuu shows up and attacks, the bridge is destroyed, and he can barely hang on. As Lag struggles with trying to fight the Gaichuu and deliver the letter, he and Niche manage to fight off the Gaichuu, he activates his gun and hits the letter- exposing all of Vincent's lies for what they are.

But the woman isn't sad. She's just happy that her son writes her at all, and she's aware that he lies in his letters- she knows he doesn't want her to worry about him, and she knows that one day, he *will* succeed. Lag, feeling much better about his own views of delivering letters, heads back to home.

A few days later, he returns to the beehive, where he says he's been feeling a little muzzy for the past few days. He barely recgonizes Zazie and Connor, who react in shock to the circles under his eyes and ask him if he has had a physical yet, because using his heart takes a toll on his body, and if he overdoes it, he will feel it.

But none of the Letter Bees seem to like the Doctor, who they feel is creepy. The Doctor is a young man whose father is head of the World Science Group, and apparently the Doctor wants to follow in his father's footsteps. He especially wants to examine Steak, Niche's portable meal. The Doctor is aware that Steak is a very rare animal known as a Kappellmeister, who used to live in harmony with the Gaichuu. Doctor Thunderland Junior wants to cut steak apart to find out his secrets.

But when Lag voices that thought to Niche, Niche gets upset that the Doctor wants to steal her "meat", and she goes after him. Lag, Connor and Zazie go with him, along with their own Dingos. Niche tells the Doctor to leave her meat alone, and the Doctor recognizes Niche as a "Child of Maka" in human form. The Doctor retreats to his lab, and Lag follows him, firing his Nocturne, which hits the Lab, which the other Letter Bees call "Hell's Kitchen". But is the Doctor as bad as his reputation suggests?

The Doctor tells Lag that he doesn't have any friends, but the one person who understood him was Lag's friend, Gauche Suede. Since Lag's Amber can reveal the history of people and objects, the Doctor wants him to deliver a letter to a man that Gauche once mentioned- "the man who could not become spirit".

Lag travels with Connor to the town of Honeywaters, where Gauche Suede met "the man who could not become spirit", and Connor tells Lag that the town was removed from the delivery route five years ago- mainly because it was dangerous and filled with Anti-Government factions. But they also discuss Zazie, who is a bad Letter Bee at Delivering letters, and very good at killing Gaichuu, since his parents were killed by a Gaichuu, and he wants to find the Gaichuu that killed them and kill it. Connor asks Lag if he'd like to team up with Zazie and Connor and find the Gaichuu, and Lag agrees.

Outside of town, Lag and Connor run out of water. Niche finds a spring with honey-colored water, but Connor warns him not to drink the water- the honey-colored water- it's toxic and can paralyze people for hours! Once in the town, they come upon a woman giving a speech to the townspeople. With her is a very tall man who is hunched over, wears a mask, and has claws for hands. She claims that this man, who is her husband, is "the man who cannot become spirit", and that his deformities were inflicted on him by the Government. But she also possesses a piece of black spirit Amber that once belonged to Gauche Suede.

Lag steps forward to ask her about it, but the people around think that the Letter Bees are agents of the Government and try to capture them. Niche defends Lag, until she suddenly falls out of the sky, a victim of the Honey Waters. Niche and Connor are captured, while Lag is spirited away by a strange girl who asks him to deliver the town's letters. What is going on here, and who is the strange girl and the woman who gave the speech? What is going on in Honeywaters, and can Lag, Connor and Niche escape the town as easily as they entered?

Well, Lag is finally getting his wish to go on the trail of Gauche Suede. But Gauche's disappearance seems to have something to do with anti-government sentiment and the "Day of the Flicker" that somehow made Gauche lose his heart. And now we have some new mysteries, like who "the man who cannot become spirit" is, and how Gauche Suede's spirit amber got into the hands of the woman lecturing the town. The Letter Bees, far from fighting the Gaichuu, are seen as agents of Government repression, and in Honeywaters, as possibly controlling the Gaichuu to keep people afraid and under the Government's control.

But what is the truth? Do the anti-government people have it right? As yet, we don't have enough information to really know. I mean, we do know that the Bees are not controlling the Gaichuu, but that doesn't mean that the activists are wrong about the rest of it. Or are they? That remains to be seen, but the information and lack thereof pull the story along, and make me want to read more, to ferret out the mystery and see it solved. Hopefully, this will happen soon.

I really enjoyed this book. Lag spends less of his time crying and more time actually doing and learning stuff. The mysteries deepen, showing us more knots to unravel further up the road. Recommended.

The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray

In Chemistry, most students will notice a big wall hanger containing the periodic table of the Elements hanging on the walls. Everybody knows that the first two, Hydrogen and Helium, make up most of the known portions of the universe. Even our Sun is busily converting Hydrogen to Helium in the largest nuclear fusion reactor in our Solar System. But how much do you know about the rest of the elements on that table, and would you be able to recognize them if you saw them?

This book introduces readers to all the (at the time of publication) known 118 Elements, from Hydrogen to the still unnamed Ununoctium (unnamed because its current name is merely the number 118 as written in Latin). The last six or so are still awaiting official naming- 118 also has to wait to be synthesized and/or discovered- it's been postulated to exist, but so far no scientists have found it. And 118 will not be the last, either, as it is theorized that the elements might get more stable around 120 or 122 *Unbinilum" and "Unbibiium", but no one has even formulated what to look for in either, so neither have appeared in the Periodic table yet, nor is there a reason to start a new row on the table.

Each element is shown, wither as a metal (in the case of metals) or in its common forms (including diamonds and coal for carbon). Gasses are shown in containers, and occasionally in incandescent tubes for gasses such as Xenon, Argon and Neon. It may interest you to know that not all of those lights are "Neon" lights. Neon only applies to red lights, while Blue ones are Argon and Purple ones are Xenon. Sodium is a kind of orange, and Hydrogen is a sort of creamy color. In some cases, rocks and minerals in which the element may be found are included, and the many and varied forms of each element are shown. Along the side of the page, atomic weight, density, crystal structure, Electron filling order, atomic emission spectrum and state at various temperatures (solid, liquid and gas) are tracked. Each element is given a single=page writeup, and from two to four pages of pictures of various elemental forms and other information are given, each in full color.

This book is wonderful, a coffee-table book of the elements with plenty of pictures and information to see and marvel at, including how and why the element was named (Indium was *not* named for India or Indiana, but for the strong blue color of its emission spectrum). Mostly left unexplained is why some elemental names do not correspond to the letter used to represent them on the Periodic table. But I already know that Gold is Au for its latin name, Aurium, and Silver is Ag for Argentum, while Copper is Cu for Cuprium, Tin is Sn for Stannum and Lead is Pb for Plumbum, and Antimony is Sb for Stilb

Nevertheless, the book is a real wonder, and some of the labels on the pictures make you think and laugh. One of the pictures in the entry for Gold shows a one-inch gold nugget found in Alaska by a man named Hormidas O. Marion who went there to sell shoes to the Eskimos. Other interesting pictures include freeform Chrome nuggets left behind on uninsulated cracks in electroplating arrays, and a fish carved from frozen mercury and only kept in that form by keeping it frozen. This book is such a feast for the eyes and the mind that you will keep coming back to it long after you have finished it to marvel again and again.

Some of the graphs are a little unclear, and don't convey information in a precise enough way. I would have like to have seen the state change information given as actual numbers, as sometimes that graph can be very hard to be precise on. Tunsten, for instance, has the highest melting point of any metallic element, at over 6000 degrees Farenheit. But unless you look it up elsewhere, you won't know that the actual melting point is 6192 degrees. Aside from that, this book is all good and very fascinating.

This is a book that you might not think of going out to look for on your own, but once you see it, you won't be able to resist cracking the covers and doing a little exploration of your own. Theo Gray is the same guy who gave us the excellent "Mad Science Experiments You Can Do At Home (But Probably Shouldn't), and he also extolls the joy of collecting the elements at the end of the book, with a picture of his own collection. Buying this book will probably make you want to take up that hobby yourself, and I highly recommend this book to read and enjoy.

Betrayer by C.J. Cherryh

Bren Cameron is human, but raised on a planet where humans are just interlopers amidst the race of beings known as Atevi, Atevi are humanoid, with black skin and hair and golden eyes, not to mention usually about seven and a half feet tall. But while they may look human in form, their culture is so very different that they and the humans forced to land on the planet two hundred years ago came to blows and war. The war ended with the humans banished to a small island known as Mospheira, and a single human diplomat to both learn Atevi culture and be the negotiator between the two very different cultures, called a paidhi. Technically, a Paidhi is an interpreter, but in practice is a diplomat/negotiator who manages the technology exchange between the somewhat more advanced humans and the original steam-powered Atevi culture.

Bren is merely the latest human to serve in this post, but during his tenure, he has learned more about the Atevi than any of his predecessors, and aligned with the Great Southern Lord, Tabini, has brought Atevi culture, kicking and screaming at times, into the space age. In just his short time in his role, the Space Station constructed from the remains of the starship that brought the humans to the Atevi planet has been repopulated with mostly Atevi in charge, and the return of the Starship, Phoenix, has been dealt with, as well as Bren serving as Ambassador to another alien race discovered by the Phoenix, the Kyo.

With the return of Bren, the Dowager Duchess Ilsidi, and Cajieri, Tabini's eldest son and heir. Bren was dumped back into a war that some of the Atevi had been fighting with Tabini. When someone attempted to take out Bren by bombing his apartment at court, he, Ilsidi and Cajieri were sent to lands in the East near those owned by Lord Geigi, who now rules over the Space Station above, to get them safely out of the way and for Tabini to deal with the remaining rebels responsible. However, the rebels were in the east as well, and Bren discovered that some of Geigi's relatives were part of them. But behind them all seemed to be the Lord Mashigi, a young and fairly dangerous lord.

Masigi maintained that he and his branch were not behind the rebels or the assassination attempt on Bren, but no one really believed him, and the situation got worse when Bren's brother Toby and his wife and Bren's old lover Barb decided to come to Bren's aid and assistance in Toby's fishing boat. Add to that Cajieri having trouble developing a sense of man'chi, or loyalty, among the members of the assassin's guild assigned to him as bodyguards, ends with Cajieri disappearing from the house to teach them a lesson, and two members of the guild going in search of him, believing him to have been kidnapped by Mashigi's men. However, he has merely been hiding, and the fallout ends with Barb having been kidnapped and Toby injured, and Bren, who suspects that Mashigi is telling the truth about not being involved in all of this, ends up handing himself and his own bodyguards over to Mashigi to serve as a negotiator between Mashigi, and since Mashigi does not trust Tabini at all, the Dowager Ilsidi, to broker peace, take out the rebels, and hopefully keep Mashigi in charge of the area and clear his name.

Bren is bruised and injured, and since none of the Atevi have even seen a human, much less like them, there is a possibility that one of Mashigi's servants will attempt to kill Bren, either with gun, knife or poison, and may even poison him accidentally simply by cooking him something that is fine for Atevi and poisonous to humans. And at the same time, Bren must try to talk the decidedly suspicious Mashigi into allying with Tabini through the person of the Dowager Duchess Ilsidi, and the Western association she represents, who are also not all that happy with the actions that Tabini has taken to bring Atevi society into the space age, since many of them are suspicious even of technology like the railroad that is tying the continent closer together.

And even if Bren can bring Mashigi around to allying with the Dowager Duchess, there is the small matters of the other rebels who are responsible for the attack on the estate, the still-missing bodyguard of Cajieri, Lucasi, the guild contract out on Mashigi and his house by the Assassin's Guild, who believe Mashigi responsible for the attack, and the need to escape from Mashigi's estate when he becomes more useful to the rebels dead than alive. But to bring everything to a successful conclusion, Bren will have to break man'chi to Tabini and transfer it to Mashigi so that he can argue Mashigi's side. And since the Atevi language has no words for love or affection and fourteen for betrayal, how will Tabini deal with this betrayal of Bren's loyalty to him? Will Bren's salvation also ultimately lead to his undoing and death?

Although this rather pains me to say it, the plot of many of the Foreigner series books is very much the same: Bren is attacked, gets in trouble, and otherwise gets put between a rock and a hard place, where he must think and plan and use his knowledge of Atevi culture to find his way out of the peril he is in. So far, he has foiled two rebellions against Tabini (I guess this one counts as the third, inasmuch as it is resolved at the end of this book), and a rebellion against the captain of the Spaceship that brought them to meet the Kyo.

But even if the general course of events is very often the same in what is happening in a broad sense, you never feel like you are reading the same book again and again, and the tension of the stories, as well as the very real alienness of the Atevi culture and mindset, keep me coming back for more and more. And that very alienness is also a great part of what keeps me coming back to the series for more. Atevi may resemble humans in looks and form, but their minds are authentically non-human and alien, as are their attitudes. And no matter how well Bren, a human, may understand their culture, he also knows he can never feel the same emotions and pulls that the Atevi do, almost instinctively.

Actually, in this volume, through the person of Tabini's heir, Cajieri, we get to see that the feelings of man'chi is not actually instinctive- some of it might be, but it is only through living in the midst of Atevi society that their young people develop it. Cajieri, who spent some years on board the Starship Phoenix, only comes to feel and appreciate man'chi with his bodyguards in this volume, and I couldn't tell if the time on the ship, among humans, delayed this sense or if all Atevi develop it so late in their lives.

And despite how I have made it sound, the book isn't all talking heads and thinking. Cherryh is a writer who can make even mere diplomatic negotiations equally as exciting as combat, and while there isn't much combat, since Bren is not very good at taking care of himself in a fight (most of the time, his bodyguard won't even let him carry a gun), there is still a lot of danger that he and his closest bodyguards, Algini, Banichi and Jago, must make their way through on foot, while Bren is still wounded and weak. There is plenty of excitement in this book, and yes, even combat, although much of it takes place off-screen. It's a thrilling read, and I was plenty glad to be in the middle of it.

For those who want an exciting book and authentically alien aliens with a very foreign mindset and culture, you can certainly do a lot worse than this series, and I think there are none (or perhaps few) better. While this is probably not the best volume to start with (it being the end of a fourth trilogy), I would not hesitate to check out the entire series, as this is really good stuff for those who love Sci-Fi and wonder what a real alien race might be like. Highly recommended, both this volume and the entire series.

Dear America: Like the Willow Tree- the Diary of Lydia Amelia Pierce, Portland, Maine 1918 by Lois Lowry

Lydia and her older brother, Daniel, live with their parents on a small farm in Maine. But even though her family isn't involved in fighting the Great War in Europe, its effects, specifically the Spanish Influenza, makes a great change in her life when it wipes out her parents and her baby sister, Lucy. They are taken in by their aunt and uncle, but a lack of food, room and money lead her relatives to send her and Daniel to live with the Shakers at Sabbathday Lake.

Learning to live with the Shakers takes a lot of adjustments for both Lydia and Daniel. They must live apart, as the society is segregated, women living together in one building and men in another, and they are forbidden to have any kind of relations or affection for each other beyond that of family, as they live without sex or romance. But while Lydia takes a long time to settle into the community, it is much harder for the older Daniel, with them allowed no personal property or possessions and everything owned communally.

In fact, it gets so bad for Daniel that he runs away and takes refuge in the nearby town. But unlike at the Shaker community, he is not given food or shelter, and so while he can earn some money by working for the local blacksmith, his position is extremely precarious and he starves more often than not, and although Lydia misses him terribly and is worried for him, as she grows to love and adapt to the Shaker way of life, she begins to feel that Sabbathday Lake is a place where she truly belongs. But will her brother ever return to the Shakers, and can he adapt to their life, or will be forever be apart from his sister and the life she has made with the Shakers?

Lydia must learn to take life as it comes, and even then, she will be asked to make a choice when she turns twenty-one, live with the Shakers forever, signing their covenant and living apart, or rejoin the outside world and live a life like other people and leave those she has come to love among the Shakers. What choice will she make?

Most people don't know it, but the Shakers were responsible for many items that are still in use today, like apple peelers and furniture designs that were a great improvement on what people already had. They also produced medicines that were loads better than any patent medicines in use back then. However, by not marrying or having children, and only taking in children that were surrendered to them by families, the Shakers laid the seeds of their own eventual dissolution, as there were too few Shakers to carry on their way of life and they had no children of their own to pass on their faith and beliefs to.

So while Shakers still exist today, they are nearly dead as a sect, and have become little more than quaint curiosities of a former time. To the point at which today there are only three Shakers left, or maybe less, as that was 2 years ago. And the community of Sabbathday Lake is the last surviving one, which will be conserved by Maine as long as there are Shakers left to live there. This book gives us a look at the Shakers when they were still a vibrant sect, not at the peak of their numbers, but not long into their decline, either, through a fictional character, who like many of the children that the Shakers took in and raised and educated, eventually left for a life in the outside world.

Like all books in the "Dear America" series, this book is told in Diary form, as Lydia writes down her impressions of life and the things she has learned and experienced that day. Unlike most personal possessions, her diary is not taken away from her when she moves into the Shaker community, and she is allowed to keep a personal journal, like some other Shakers did.

This book is a fascinating look at a long-passed way of life that manages to be engaging and entertaining as well as informative and interesting. The struggles and conflicts of Shaker life are well-depicted as well as the reasons that their sect declined. It opens up a section of life and history that many people will find attractive and strange, but in a good way. Highly recommended book and series.

The Waxman Murders by P.C. Doherty

The Waxman was an English Privateer sunk by two ships of the Hanseatic League somewhere in the English Channel. It was carrying the Carta Mysteriosa, a book of maps of the sea lanes and charts of various parts of the ocean. The maps are very detailed and complete, making them extremely valuable, but with the sinking of the Waxman, the Maps are lost, and every man of the crew is believed dead, despite the fact that one of the men on board was a traitor who betrayed his captain and master to the German Hanse.

When the Hanseatic Merchant Wilhelm Von Paulents arrives in England three years later, it is rumored that he now has the Carta Mysteriosa, and Hugh Corbett, clerk of the Chancery and part-time problem solver for the King of England, is sent to Maubisson Manor, which has been set aside for the use of Von Paulents and his family, to deal with the man and get the charts back, if at all possible. Hugh travels there with his manservant and fellow clerk Ranulf, and finds that a disease has struck the German visitors, the same disease, and the Manor has been cordoned off from any visitors until the sickness is known and passes. But then one Advent Sunday, the Von Paulents family is found horribly and bloodily murdered in the manor, and Hugh and Ranulf are called to the manor to find out who may have killed them, and why.

The maps contained within the Carta are extremely valuable, such that any ruler of any lands that border on the ocean would pay a hefty ransom for them. But the mayor of Canterbury, a man named Castledene, was one of the men who was involved in the attack on the Waxman, and he wanted a specific map said to lead to the location of a buried treasure, an entire ship removed from the sea, filled with gold and buried somewhere in the wilds of England. The map Castledene was searching for was said to contain the location of the ship, or clues that would lead to its discovery. But the whalebone casket that should have contained the Carta was empty, and despite a thorough search of the ship, its despoilers were unable to find any trace of the maps.

But the murders of Von Paulents and his family are not the only ones that Hugh must find a solution for. Ralph DeContet, a notorious lecher is also killed, as well as others. But who could murder on such a grand scale and what are they looking for? Is it the maps or is it revenge? Or could it possibly be some other motive? But who could kill so many without being suspected or detected? And can Hugh unravel the motives and evidence and solve the mystery while winkling out the killer and bringing him to justice> Or has he finally met his match in a wily killer?

I love P.C. Doherty. He's a writer of numerous mysteries (this happens to be the fifteenth book in just this particular series), and he writes series set in British History, Egyptian History, and even now Greek History with Alexander the Great. But no matter when a series is set, he manages to make his readers feel like they are actually there and living the time and the place along with the characters they are reading about. There is never any wobbles that throw you out of the story or the time you are supposed to be reading about. And all his detectives are canny men who may seem to be flummoxed by the mystery they are presented with, but manage to come through and solve it in the end.

Hugh Corbett is just one of Doherty's excellent detectives, and although he is generally a mild, kind man, he can be fierce and hard when he needs to be. As Keeper of the King's secret seal, he is privy to information that most others lack, and he comes close to being a spy as well as a detective. I keep on being amazed at how hard it is to discover the true villain of the piece in one of his mystery stories until the actual reveal, when most authors somehow manage to telegraph the villain long before the end in a way I usually end up picking up on.

If you are tired of detective stories where you figure out the mystery before the hero does, and that's bumming you out, like it does me, P.C. Doherty's mysteries are the antidote to your mystery blues. Well-plotted and told, this is a series and an author who will keep you in suspense right up until the end. Both are highly recommended, for that as well as a near-perfect sense of time and place that will keep you reading and guessing right up to the end.

Happy Cafe, Volume 7 by Kou Matsuzuki

Uru's school is in the middle of the school festival planning, and thanks to Uru, they have decided to run a bakery/sweet shop as their idea, and it is amazingly popular, which pisses off the third-year class, which is running a host club up on the third floor, especially when they discover that the bakery is more popular than the host club and is being run by Uru. So, to help their own cause, they decide to take her out.

And when Uru's fellow Cafe Bonheur employees, Shindo and Ichiru, show up, the host club leader is even more upset- now the bakery has the attraction of two young men who are just as beautiful as he is! This is insupportable! And when Ichiro and Mitsuka team up to prevent Shindo and Uru from discovering how much they actually like each other, it somehow intersects with the plans of the Third year student, leaving them locked in an abandoned classroom together!

Will Uru and Shindo discover how the other feels during their talk? Is it really true love? And will they ever discover who is behind their imprisonment predicament? When a man who knows Shindo's mother shows up to see him, will Shindo want to find out more about the mother that ran off and left him? And who will win the school festival?

Afterwards. Shindo talks to Uru about his mixed feelings about his mother and the knowledge he could possibly find out about her, which makes her cry on his behalf. But when he hugs her, both of them start feeling strange about it. Uru finds herself feeling attracted to the way he smells, and that makes her stiffen up. From this, Shindo concludes that she doesn't feel the same way he does, and because she is four years younger than he is, he starts feeling like some kind of pedophile pervert, and worrying about the way he feels about her himself.

The book ends with an unrelated story, number one deluxe, about two students, one male, one female, who fight over everything to be the best, even height. But can they get to the true reason they fight, and reveal the emotions they are really trying to conceal within? Or will they continue fighting at cross purposes to each other while not really resolving anything?

I still consider this series to be much like Fruits Basket, in its air of gentle romance. Both main characters seem to be still in the dark about their own feelings for each other, and there is a lot of outside influences that intrude on their romance, but the characters inability to realize what they are feeling for each other is one that irritates me a bit. Perhaps the interference that Ishiro and Mitsuka are trying to run will have the opposite effect and drive them even further together.

Perhaps it is because I haven't read the intervening four volumes, but I am wondering why the two characters want to prevent Uru and Shindo from realizing how they feel for each other. Mitsuku seems to be Uru's friend, as does Ichiro, so what is their beef with the relationship? I just don't get it.

In any case, I am still liking the series, but I want to read the intervening volumes even more now, and find out just what the heck is going on. I'd still recommend the series to fans of Fruits Basket, but I confess I am rather confused right now. Recommended.