Wish

Dearest readers! I do not know how, but time seems to have gotten away from me and what started as a few weeks became months! I am terribly sorry and will try to be a better blogger. To come back from my time away I thought I would do something short and whimsical. One of my all time favorite mangas, Wish.

For those who do not know mangas are graphic novels. Similar to comic books, but imagine a whole novel in that format. People tend to think of mangas coming from Japan, but they can come from all over. Mangas are often very long, but Wish is refreshing in that it is only four volumes.

Warning! Spoilers ahead. 

Wish was one of the first mangas I read. The story is about a man and an angel. The man, known as Shuichiro, is a well to do doctor who is the strong quiet type. He owns his own home (which if you do not know is a big accomplishment in over-crowded Japan) and at age 28 he is pretty happy with his life. The angel, known as Kohaku, is a little ditsy but always tries her best. At times she can be a bit of a crybaby, but she has a good heart. Other major characters that are involved in the story is Koryu, a demon who loves to bully Kohaku, Hisui the angel of wind, and Kokuyo the son of Satan.

The story starts out as a simple one, but deepens as it goes on. Shuichiro is heading home from work late one night and spots Kohaku trapped in a tree. He saves her, and by angel law Kohaku must grant his wish. Unfortunately Shuichiro has no wish, so Kohaku begins living with him hoping that in time he will need divine help.

If you have not already guessed it, this story is a love story. As time progresses the romance between Kohaku and Shuichiro, angel and human, begins to grow. There is also a secondary romance with Hisui and Kokuyo. The high angel and demon prince met one day and fell in love. Romance between angels and demons is illegal, especially since the two are high up politically. So the two run away to Earth, abandoning both of their duties to be with each other. Kohaku was originally sent to Earth to find Hisui, so the angel and demon also begin to live with Shuichiro.

The story is sweet and I enjoy watching the romance between the two grow. There is a little subplot involving Shuichiro's father and mother. You find out that his mother was the spirit of a wisteria tree who disappeared when she returned back to the form of a tree. This is only one of the mysterious things about Shuichiro. The demons enjoy the smell of him and he looks alarmingly like Kokuyo, the demon prince. Kokuyo has a suspicion about him, but every time he tries to say something about it the people he's talking to walk away. It happens too often to be coincidental, and when he has Koryu go to hell to steal a special book to confirm his suspicion you start to wonder just who is the mysterious Shuichiro. Adding in the fact that he was adopted only adds to the mystery.

One point in the story that shook me was when the angels finally came to find Kohaku who had been missing from heaven. Kahaku wanted to stay but Shuichiro, not wanting to cause her trouble, told her to go; that he'd never have a wish for her. This broke Kohaku's heart, and when she left Shuichiro was startled to see tears in her eyes. Kohaku later decided to break God's law for the first time and traveled to earth on her own. Good, innocent Kohaku breaking the law was a huge shock. No one could believe it within her character to do something like that. It made her desire to be with him that much stronger.

As I read the story I thought that Shuichiro was a lost demon prince and that Kohaku was following in Hisui's footsteps. The truth was even more startling. It turns out that Shuichiro was near death. This was why the demons loved his smell since they eat souls and could smell that his soul was about to leave his body. The book Kokuyo had stolen was an account of those who soon would die, and he couldn't tell anyone this because God wanted to spare Kohaku's feelings. Shuichiro's death was rather ironic since he finally had come up with his wish, which was to have Kohaku stay always with him. Despite all this the story ends happily. Hisui is cast out of heaven allowing her to live guilt free with Kokuyo, and Kohaku is stripped temporarily of her powers and so that she may be put to sleep till Shuichiro is reincarnated and they can be together.

Personally I thought the ending was bitter sweet. I was happy that everyone ended up happy, but the reborn Shuichiro was not the same Shuichiro, even if he had the same soul. I would have been happier if Shuichiro had indeed been a lost demon prince, though I loved how the story surprised me at the very end.

The story talked about some interesting things. One of them was that angels can only consume milk. This does not really come up much in the story but is still interesting. Another was that demons and angels have no gender. The author mentions this pretty early on in the first novel. The book doesn't out right say it, but the author has it in a little note for the reader. For simplicity the author refers to angels as females and demons as males. Again this is never really mentioned but it is still interesting.

What I think is the most interesting tidbit is that the book talks about the string of fate. An invisible string that connects two people entwining around their finger. This string affects people who are meant to find one another and have an important story. The string ensures that no matter how far apart they may be that the two people always end up finding one another. The story of these two people tied by fate does not always have to be a romance, though in this story it is. I liked the idea of this and thought it a nice bit of culture to learn.

Over all the Wish manga series was a story I greatly enjoyed. I have read it several times and found the love story to be quite charming. I suggest that lovers of romance give this manga a try, even if they are not usually a fan of mangas. I give this story a 7.3 out of 10.

Sources:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/62/Wish_cover.jpg
http://www.faena.com/aleph/articles/the-legend-of-the-red-string-of-japan/

Holocaust Butterflies

While writing about my teacher's "Cafe Read-A-Latte" I remembered something else my teacher did that was kind of special. Once every two years this English teacher would get a special trunk that would help teach kids about the holocaust. She would teach the fifth and sixth graders at the same time since the trunk was only available certain points.

Before we knew what the trunk was for the teacher would start with us all colouring a beautiful butterfly. We would use crayons to fill in the wings, front and back, and then rub it with vegetable oil to make it shiny and translucent. Once the little critters were dry we would hang them from the ceiling. I remember thinking how beautiful the butterflies looked dangling above our desks.

This is when we were told we would talk about the Holocaust and were introduced to a special book: I Never Saw Another Butterfly. 

For those who are not familiar with this book, I Never Saw Another Butterfly is a collection of children's poetry and drawings from concentration class. We would look at other written works about the Holocaust, but the main focus would always be on a specific child. Our butterfly was to represent this child. At the end of our Holocaust lessons we would read the poem from our child to the class and then find out if the child survived or not. If the child survived the concentration camp our butterfly would remain proudly flying. If not, the teacher cut down the drawing leaving a lonely string in its place. While we were doing all this we were learning the historical side of the Holocaust from our history teacher. Even after all these years I still remember the name of my child: Miroslav Košek. His poem is as follows:

It All Depends on How You Look at It 

Terezin is full of beauty. 

It's in your eyes now clear

And through the street the tramp 

Of Many Marching Feet I hear. 

In the ghetto at Terezin, 

It looks that way to me, 

Is a square kilometer of earth

Cut off from the world that's free. 

Death, after all, claims everyone, 

You find it everywhere.

It catches up even those

Who wear their noses in the air. 

The whole, wide world is ruled

With a certain justice, so

That helps perhaps to sweeten

The poor man's pain and woe. 

This was a powerful lesson plan that even now makes me almost cry. The day that we read our child's poem to the class was an emotional one. To this day I can remember how thick the air was and how sore my throat was, full of un-shed tears. The girl in the front row had her head buried in her arms as two, red eyes with tears streaming down them stared back at me. As is expected most of the butterflies were cut down, and the strings were left up for the months to follow as a sad reminder of the children's death. I can still remember that my child, Miroslav Košek, died in the concentration camp. Again I say that this was a powerful lesson plan that still to this day stays with me. My English teacher was an amazing woman who knew how to make English fun and exciting. 

Sources: 

• https://www.amazon.com/Never-Saw-Another-Butterfly-Concentration/dp/0805210156/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501179954&sr=8-1&keywords=i+never+saw+another+butterfly
• http://www.troup.org/userfiles/929/My%20Files/ELA/HS%20ELA/10th%20ELA/10th%20Unit%202/10.2.1%20I%20never%20saw%20another%20butterfly%20summarizer.pdf?id=13343
• http://www.holocaust.cz/en/database-of-victims/victim/102119-miroslav-kosek/

Cafe Read-A-Latte

Feeling nostalgic, I thought I would talk about something amazing my teacher did in sixth grade. Once a quarter (four times in the school year) she would do something that she called "Cafe Read-A-Latte." The teacher would transform the classroom into a coffee shop by various methods. She would turn off all the lights and have real lamps that she brought in from home to set a dim glow. Then the desks would be pushed from rows into little tables covered in lace table cloths. The walls would be decorated in seasonal items, such as Christmas lights or cutouts of bats and pumpkins. The finishing touch was that she would bring in an industrial size peculator that would be used to make hot chocolate that we would eat with small snacks. Our English teacher would use this little event as a reward for reading. Only people who had read their books could attend and the students at the little table would spend the class time talking about their books while sipping chocolate. I do not remember the books that I discussed, but "Cafe Read-A-Latte" has always stuck with me. I was a big lover of reading before my teacher did this, but I always thought that this was a fantastic event that was rewarded to those who loved books.

Banana Bread

Hello everyone! As everyone knows (or should know) life has been a bit hectic. Hopefully life will slow down so that I can post more. There are a few things that have changed that will allow me to have a bit more free time. I have graduated, moved into a house with a dishwasher, and have gained a steady job. A jot that frees me from having to having to work two not so good jobs.

Despite my major, I have chosen to work in the field of hotels, the front desk to be specific. Though I never expected this to affect my cooking I could not have been more wrong. Working at a hotel gives me access to certain things. The first thing is that I now have access to the newspaper on a daily basis. As a child my mother always stressed that one should read the paper, so as I was perusing it on my break I was delighted to find a wonderful article on cooking. As the title suggests, the article was on banana bread. Here is a link on said article if you wish to read it.

http://www.semissourian.com/story/2411596.html

The other thing that I have access to at the hotel is over-ripe bananas. Apparently customers do not enjoy eating bananas with too many brown spots, so the fruit that gets to this state is free for employees to take home. When I saw a box of abandoned, over-ripe bananas on the same day that I found this article I simply thought it fate. This was how my night of baking came to be, resulting in:

a whole lot of muffins. I was not prepared for how many muffins a whole box of bananas would create. I was baking until the early hours in the morning. What is not seen in the picture is that in addition to all of these muffins there was also a loaf of bread. Having nearly passed out on the last two loads of muffins I decided to just pour the last bit of batter into a loaf pan to get rid of it (this was how I learned that my new oven has racks that were far too close to the ceiling). In case you do not want to read the article I will transfer the recipe over.

Three-Bowl Banana Bread

Servings: 2 loaves make 10 generous slices

Start to finish: 1 hour, 15 minutes (Active time: 15 minutes)

Pan: 8x4x2.5 -inch loaf pans, disposable aluminum pans work very well.

Ingredients:
* 3 large and very ripe, "brown" bananas (you can use 4 small bananas)

* 1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar, divided

* 1 teaspoon vanilla

* 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

* 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

* 1/2 teaspoon salt

* 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

* 3 large eggs

* 3/4 cup Crisco all-vegetable oil

* 1-2 cups toasted walnut halves, coarsely chopped plus more halves for decorating

* Flour and oil baking spray

Directions:

1. Toast walnuts in the oven at 250 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove and let cool.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
3. Meanwhile, mash bananas with a fork and add all but 1/2 cup of the sugar. Mix and add vanilla. Continue mixing until the mixture is completely smooth.
4. In a separate large bowl, measure flour and stir with a whisk or fork to aerate. Place 1/2 cup of sugar in the bowl. Add baking soda, salt, cinnamon and whisk well.
5. In a third bowl, mix eggs and oil with a blending fork until emulsified.
6. Using a fork, mix eggs well with the flour mixture. Add banana mixture to the egg-flour mixture and stir with a fork until completely combined. Add chopped walnuts and pour batter into prepared loaf pans, using a baking spray so that the bread doesn't stick to the pan. Decorate the top with walnut halves.
7. Bake for about 60 minutes or until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Remove from oven and let sit in the pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack. Can be served warm or completely cooled. 

Nutrition information per serving: 513 calories; 267 calories from fat; 30 g fat (4 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 65 mg cholesterol; 326 mg sodium; 55 g carbohydrate; 3 g fiber; 34 g sugar; 7 g protein.


I have not made banana bread very much before acquiring this recipe. Though I love banana bread I do not enjoy bananas, and unfortunately stores do not often sell over-ripe bananas. Since my new job has provided me with an almost constant source of the browned fruit I have been able to make this bread to the point that I am practically sick of it. Even my fiance who loves banana bread does not want to touch it. Fortunately I have many family members and neighbors who love banana bread so much that they have started begging me to make it for them.


Though I have not experimented with many banana bread recipes other people have told me that this recipe is one of the best that they have tasted. I usually like to add stuff when make recipes, but other than taking out the walnuts I have not changed a single thing with this recipe, and I could not be more glad. This is a moist and flavorful recipe. Very simple and easy to do I am sure that anyone could make this despite their skills in baking. I have even made the recipe using a single mixing bowl instead of the three that the directions call for with great success. The only other things that I have played around with is topping the bread with oats (from a can of oatmeal) or changed the amount of bananas. The oats were pretty, but though I have done this twice I would probably not do it all the time. This decoration does not change much in the flavor or the texture in the bread, but I simply prefer it without them. As for the bananas, I have tried the recipe with four or even five bananas for a batch. Three is a good number, but more bananas adds for more banana flavor. The bread is still tasty even with the deviation from the amount of fruit included.


Simple directions, ingredients that are easy to find in anyone's home, and a delicious recipe. This is everything a good recipe calls for. I give it a 9.5 out of 10.

Raisin Pie

Life has gotten a little complex. I have two jobs, a new house, a garden to plant, and a few other things to do. This is why I have not been able to blog in a while. With little free time it takes much longer to read, but my beloved pen-pals came up with a solution for this. They decided I blog about other things in my life. After much consideration I decided this was a great idea, and I will start by blogging about a recipe for raisin pie.

Original recipe:

Old Fashioned Raisin Pie I

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of raisins 
• 2 cups of water 
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar 
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch 
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon 
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt 
• 1 tablespoon of distilled white vinegar 
• 1 tablespoon of butter 
• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie 

Directions: 

1. Combine raisins and water in a small saucepan. Boil 5 minutes. Blend brown sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and salt together; add to hot raisins. Cook and stir until syrup is clear. Remove from heat, and stir in vinegar and butter/margarine. Cool slightly. 
2. Turn filling into a pastry lined pan. Cover with top crust. Seal edges, and cut slits in the top crust. 
3. Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 30 to 35 minutes. 

Recipe source: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/12412/old-fashioned-raisin-pie-i/ 

Notes: 

Raisin pie is one of my favorite recipes. It is simple, easy, and it has one of my favorite foods as the star: raisins. Raisins have fallen out of style, and I am not sure why. They help add to the depth of flavor in many of my favorite recipes. Cinnamon rolls, bread pudding, and rice pudding are a few recipes I feel are simply incomplete without raisins; however, in these recipes raisins are not the main component. This is why I love raisin pie: raisins are the star with their chance to shine! 

The first thing I did to alter this recipe was to double the filling. I wanted a really full pie and to double the recipe seemed to best way to do it. 

The second thing I did was to substitute 1/4 of the total raisins into craisins. 1 cup was craisins while the remaining 3 cups were raisins. In the end I felt this added a much larger depth of flavor. The taste really came out in the end product. Even though this recipe is raisin pie I would substitute craisins again. 

The third change I made was adding nutmeg, which my best friends know is my secret ingredient. The recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of cinnamon so I used 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg and 3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. I felt this added the final push that was needed in the flavor profile. 

The final change I made was to only use one crust. With raisin pie I never understood the need to use a top crust. The end product holds its shape fine and I think it is more appealing to the eye. 

In the end, I felt this recipe was a success! The only issue I had was baking time. My pie required more time in the oven (I assume because I doubled the filling). I greatly enjoyed this sweet dessert (especially with coffee!) and my coworkers have found it tasty even though they do not enjoy raisins. I would bake this again in a heartbeat. 

I give this recipe a 7.2 out of 10. 

The Unicorn Who Had No Horn

If you lovely readers have not noticed I have been trying to keep this blog to the first book in a book series. This is what made sense to me when I was planning this writing adventure, but this had led to some lengthy gaps. Life on my end has gone quite busy, and since the books I have been reading have not been the first in their respective series I thought I'd blog about a children's book to simply keep the blog alive.

This book was introduced to me when I was in Kindergarten. This may be the reason I love fantasy. To my child brain this book was magical. I loved the unicorns, the journey, and the crystals. It was a sweet, innocent story that opened my mind to the world of fantasy. I immediately went home and asked my mother to get me this book, but not surprisingly she was unable to find it.

Looking back it is easy to see why she was unable to find it. As a child I did not have the name of the book or the author. I just told her what the book was about, and it probably was not the best description either. It also appears that this book was published in 1985. By the looks of this book, The Unicorn Who Had No Horn was a cheap book that most likely was not sold as well as children's books like Dr. Seuss. Even today this book proved difficult to find.

This book must be special since it stayed in the back of my mind through grade school, high school, and college. Eventually I was wanting to read it again so bad that I simply sat down till a few hours later I found it (and even then I wasn't 100% sure it was the right book).

Re-reading the book was a magical experience, but it did not hold me the way it did back then. The book is about a unicorn who has no horn and goes on a journey to find it. She travels far and eventually she finds a field of crystals. There she finds the crystal that is to be her horn, but she is unable to take it because she cannot offer anything in return. Thus, the unicorn cries, but her tears become flowers. The crystals are so happy they give her the crystal that becomes her horn.

As a child I accepted all of these things as they were. As an adult I am left wanting more. Why was her horn made of crystal? What makes this horn more special than the rest? Why was she born this way? These are answers I'll never know. As far as children books go this is not my favorite; it's not even the best. Still, there's something magical about it, and all children should be introduced into fantasy the way I was (even if it is not with this book). I give it a 5.8 out of 10.

Picture source: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ApHCKo7gL._SY373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Howl's Moving Castle

Warning! Spoilers ahead

Howl's Moving Castle is a story that I first discovered in the movie. I've enjoyed the movie many times, but I did not learn it was based on a book till one of my reader friends suggested it to me. After checking the book out at my local library I was glad she had. After reading the first paragraph I was hooked.

Like all books with a movie adaption I was curious to see how similar the story was to the movie. Though I could see the similarities I was pleased that the two stories were very different. The biggest surprise was that Howl was originally from Wales, England and that he some how journeyed to this other dimension. Though it was surprising I did enjoy seeing how Sophie reacted to things common in our world but don't exist in hers.

I felt that this story was a more intellectual read. I had the impression that I was reading an epic fantasy told in an older style. The story was about the eldest daughter of three, Sophie, who believes that since she is the eldest she will be unable to make her fortune. Believing its her fate she is resigned to live her life as a hat maker till she is cursed by the Witch of the Wastes into an old woman. There she sets out and ends up living with Howel, his apprentice Michael, and the fire demon Calcifer.

Though I usually do not like to watch the movie before reading the book, this book was so complicated with its plot that knowing the movie story line helped me understand what was going on; however, this set me up to constantly comparing the two. I was surprised at how much Sophie's sisters played a roll in this book. I was also surprised that the Witch of the Waste does not become good but dies in the end. In the movie I was very happy about this fact, but in the book the death was fitting. The biggest surprise was the fact that Sophie was a witch in her own right. This seemed fitting and made much more sense to the story.

While the movie was fast paced the book took its time telling the story. I got to enjoy watching the character's lives unfold. Not only was the story slow paced but so was the romance between Howel and Sophie. If I had not seen the movie I would not have expected the two to come together. Even knowing this I still was surprised when in the end it is revealed they love each other. It surprised me but yet I found that it made perfect sense that they loved each other. Their's was a romance that took its time to unfold. By the time the reader realizes they love each other the characters realize it their selves.

In my eyes this book is an epic fantasy and should be held next to stories such as The Hobbit. I give this book a 8.8/10.

Image source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/Howl's_Moving_Castle_(Book_Cover).jpg

Hidden Deep

Warning! Spoilers ahead. 

Hidden Deep came to my life in a unique way. Unlike other books that end up on my reading list this book just showed up on my news feed on Facebook. At first I ignored it, as I do other advertisements, but I kept seeing it. After checking it out I discovered that this book was free on Amazon, so I bought it and read it many months later. 

This book surprised me at how much I enjoyed it. The book is about the budding relationship with Ryann, a human, and Lad, an elf. Ryann had met Lad when she was a little girl. Having wandered out too far into the woods she is in danger of dying in the cold when the elf comes to her. He helps her and soon she is discovered by her human family. Though her family insists that Lad was imaginary she never truly forgets him and eventually she meets him again. 

I found the plot to be refreshing in that it portrayed elves in a new light, yet predictable. I figured out long before it is revealed that Ryann's grandmother is an elf or that Lad was nobility among elf kind. Despite this I still enjoyed the read and look forward to reading the rest in the series. I give this book a 6.5/10. 

Image source: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51B9PBDpPiL.jpg

Sarah, Plain and Tall

Back in the days of my youth I attended an elementary school that required the students to do selected readings. Though this book, Sarah, Plain and Tall, was one of them I did not read this book, or rather I did not finish it. I tried my best to finish it. Perhaps it was because I was only allowed to read during class time, the fact I had to read out loud instead of silently in my head, or that I was required to read in a group. Whatever the reason I did not read this book in grade school, and it has remained on my reading list since.

Fast forward in time. I have just graduated college and I see this book at my local library. I remember that it is on my to read list and so I check it out. This book was a quick read. Simple, and like Sarah her self a bit plain. Despite all this I loved the book all the more for it. The simple read really helped me see the world from a child's simple perspective. The simplicity also helped make the little scenes of love that much more meaningful.

Though this book is not the most intellectual read I found this book quite enjoyable. I would definitely recommend this story for readers of all ages. I give it a 6.3/10.



Image Source: http://100scopenotes.com/files/2012/07/Sarah-Plain-and-Tall.jpg