thenerdybookwitch's Reviews (678)

When I first read Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya, I was in high school and dealing with lots of insecurities as one does becoming an adult. I had given up on reading YA novels at that time and dedicated myself to teen manga instead because I enjoyed them more. I remember loving the world, the story, the art, and the characters of Fruits Basket so much that I became obsessed with the anime as well (the original adaptation before they made another one). I had grown up with the story of the Great Race with the animals of the Chinese Zodiac and fell in love with the way Natsuki Takaya incorporated it into her manga. Now that I have reread it as an adult, how do I think of it now?
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Fruits Basket is still a wonderful and timeless manga. Natsuki Takaya has created a world that is charming, delightful, fun, serious and hopeful. Her artwork is beautiful and her writing is incredible. All of the characters are amazing, I love them for all their differences, individual personalities and the growths that they go through in the story. The story itself is great, I have cried and laughed all over again. Truly a beautiful coming of age tale. I highly recommend it!
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Fruits Basket may look very cute but it can get very serious. So as a trigger warning, this manga deals with: loss/coping with loss, mental and physical child abuse, suicide, and some violence. If you do read this manga, I hope you enjoy it!
5/5⭐️

Who is Jody Wilson-Raybould? She was our first Indigenous Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and Minister of Veterans Affairs of Canada. She was also a Treaty Commissioner and Regional Chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, as well as a Crown Prosecutor in BC. This book is a collection of all her speeches on Indigenous rights, Canada's colonialism and refusal to acknowledge Indigenous rights, and the mistreatment of Indigenous from past to present in very important meetings and assemblies between 2009-2019.
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Reading this book in 2020 has definitely given me a large perspective on things. The main one being that throughout the decade of these speeches, many of issues Indigenous experience due to the colonialism of the Canadian government is still happening. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has been implemented since 2010, yet the Canadian government refuses to acknowledge that Indigenous have rights and that is so wrong. A decade of speeches and they are just as relevant and important as they were when spoken. Canada needs to change, it must change. Indigenous rights and values must be recognized and acknowledged. The justice system, which has always been against Indigenous and only benefits white settlers, needs to change. To my fellow white Canadians, please work to reconcile. Fight alongside Indigenous Peoples in support for their rights, solidarity, and freedom. They deserve respect, recognition, and to be treated equal.
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These speeches are so important. I encourage every Canadian to read this book. We need to care about the people whose land we are living on, please give it a read. I will continue to read Indigenous books and educate myself, you all should be too.
5/5⭐️

This counts as the second historical biography about the Victorian Era that I have read this year. I put They All Love Jack into the same category as Something In The Blood (a Bram Stoker biography I read recently and enjoyed) because while one showed a beautiful portrait of Victorian England, the other shows the dark side of the era. The Whitechapel Murders have been studied, debated, ripped open, dissected, and pondered for over a century. The endless theories and conspiracies of one of the world's greatest murder mysteries have ranged from the plausible to the ridiculous. But the biggest question commonly asked by all is: who was Jack the Ripper?
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They All Love Jack by Bruce Robinson, discusses a new theory about Freemasonry being a huge focal point in the Whitechapel Murders. It's not the first time Freemasonry has been associated with the case since there is the conspiracy theory with Prince Albert, but it's not at all the subject in the book. I won't give away the main reason for its discussion or the man that the author thinks was Jack the Ripper since I don't want to spoil those that haven't read it. The only thing I will say is that Bruce Robinson gives a lot of insight on how Freemasonry was in the Victorian era, and it's relationship with it's members. And he did a very good job representing that in his book.
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I love how crude and informative the writing is. For someone that has read a lot of reference books on the Whitechapel Murders, I was really happy to read something on the subject that didn't read like a text book. The author does like to swear and curse, which I think added a lot to the narrative but I can understand if that may put someone off when reading it considering that this is a book about real murder. It didn't bother me, but if any of you are bothered by it then I suggest reading something different. As for the information he discusses, I think he wrote them down very well and made a lot of compelling arguments. Which makes sense since he researched and wrote They All Love Jack for 15 years before it was published. My only gripe with it is how disjointed the first chapter was, and that the end slacked on some things I wish were talked about more. If it didn't have those then my rating would've gone higher.
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I personally don't think we'll ever find out who Jack the Ripper was. But that doesn't at all deter me from reading and studying the Whitechapel Murders. It is a fascinating and haunting event in history, one that I'm sure I'll always be interested in and respect. I recommend They All Love Jack for any True Crime enthusiast, it is a great book to add to ones collection.
4.5/5⭐️