Musthafa Kamal Kamal itibaren Millet, AB T0C, Canada itibaren Millet, AB T0C, Canada

Alright, now I have finally read the twelfth volume of the “Fruits Basket” series by Natsuki Takaya and it was a pleasant read. In this volume, a whole new school year is starting up and Yuki starts meeting the new members of the student council including Kimi a girl who is beautiful enough to capture men’s hearts and Naohito, who already sees Yuki as a rival in the student council. Also, Tohru goes and visits her grandfather who has fallen ill and her grandfather reveals some secrets about her father that Tohru tried to shut out of her life and Tohru visits Shishou to ask him about how to break the Sohma curse. As much as I liked this volume, not much was going on in this volume, other than the parent/teacher conference that the students had and boy the conference between Shigure and Mayuko was extremely hilarious! I also loved the fact that Tohru is still trying her hardest to find out the cure to the Sohmas’ curse and by this point, Tohru truly does care about the Sohma family, especially Kyo and I loved the fact that she is stepping up to the challenge. It was also really interesting seeing the relationship that Haru and Rin have with each other although Rin was acting suspiciously distant towards Haru and we are not sure why yet, but hopefully I will find out once I read the next volume of the series! It was also interesting learning about what Tohru’s grandfather thought about his son’s marriage to Kyoko and I really love Tohru’s grandfather! Tohru’s grandfather seems to be the only person on Tohru’s father’s side of the family who truly loves Tohru and I am glad that he supported the marriage between Kyoko and Tohru’s father’s marriage to each other. There was not anything wrong with this volume, except for one curse word and that was the “s” word, although it was only uttered once and it was only during one scene, so if anyone does not like reading curse words, then they might want to skim over this little scene between Rin and Yuki arguing. Overall, “Fruits Basket: Volume 12” is a great volume that truly makes a turn of events in the “Fruits Baskets” characters’ lives and hopefully, there would be more twists and turns coming our way!

Mary Faber, orphaned street urchin, disguises herself as a boy and gets a job on a ship. I liked the language of the book, which was in keeping both with the time period and Mary's location and circumstances. I'd think it would be difficult to write a book from a girl's point of view without inserting some feminist commentary, and the author does get a few jabs in there. My biggest problem with the story is that the male lead, Jamie, falls for "Jack," thinks he's a homosexual, and then, when "Jack" reveals "himself" to be Mary, all, "Yay, it's okay for me to be attracted to you now!" I don't buy it. While the first half of the book was pretty exciting, and seemed fairly realistic, the second half loses steam. This is around the time the story heads into the romantic stuff, and that may be a coincidence (but I don't think so). It is also around this point that the author starts inserting contemporary ideas about sexual politics into his otherwise historically accurate plot. I enjoyed the story, but I wish that it had focused more on the challenges of being on board a British naval ship, dealing with pirates and long days at sea, instead of Mary/Jack's growing attachment to Jamie. In conclusion, boys ruin everything.