Search

Search only in certain items:

Yakuza Moon: The True Story of a Gangster's Daughter
Yakuza Moon: The True Story of a Gangster's Daughter
Sean Michael Wilson | 2011 | Comics & Graphic Novels
8
8.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book tells a story of Shoko Tendo, and it was a manga version of her memoir. Her life was pretty brutal and filled with bad decisions, drugs and sex. She got mixed with the wrong crowd at a very young age, and that got her into drugs, countless horrible and abusive relationships, mostly with married men. I didn’t like Shoko at all, she continuously made poor decisions in her life, and it all started with her being “Know it all” in her young days.

The narrative of this novel is filled with violence, and it got sadder and more miserable as I was reading through this book. This book is a great example of how poor decisions can ruin one’s life. Even though it was a sad book, I absolutely loved the illustrations used to portray this story. I found this novel quite educational, I learned how people were getting by in Japan in 1990ies, especially women.

This book is quite nerve-racking and upsetting, and the chapters are quite long, but it is a one-sitting read and pages just fly by. The ending of this book rounded up the story very nicely, but I wanted a different ending for Shoko.

So, to conclude, it was an unusual and shocking journey for me, but at the same time an invaluable experience gained throughout the pages, and I would strongly recommend it to everybody.
  
Hank Brodt Holocaust Memoirs: A Candle and a Promise
Hank Brodt Holocaust Memoirs: A Candle and a Promise
Deborah Donnelly | 2017 | History & Politics
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
For me, it is always incredibly sad to read holocaust memoirs or any memoirs related to concentration camps. The amount of suffering it has brought to the innocent people, it is hard to comprehend.

The description of this book is pretty accurate. This book is a story of a poor polish- Jewish boy called Hank, and how he survived the Holocaust. The story starts with Hank’s childhood to post survival activities. After being taken to the concentration camp, Hank did not stay for long in one place, he was transported many times to different camps, and he shared the events he had to endure and people he met.

The book is accompanied by plenty of photos of different events, different concentration camps which Hank was transported to, and also pictures of Hank’s family. I loved the short chapters, and I finished this memoir in one sitting. For me it was gripping and I really wanted to find out what happened next after each chapter. So, to conclude, I am very happy that Hank had a chance to survive and shared his experiences with all the readers. It was a horrible period in human history, and I believe that it should not be left forgotten. So, if you into WWII books, give this book a go, it is a chilling read, filled with pain and sorrow, but it shows, that even in the worst of times, some people can still keep their kindness.