Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto saved my life (Book Review)

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto - 8/10

This was hardly the book where I expected to come in contact with the story of a transgender woman. Written in the 1980s, set in Japan, I picked "Kitchen" up because I heard Banana Yoshimoto was a great author and I try to read as many books by women as I can, and I am trying to broaden the number of Japanese authors I read as well. I had absolutely no idea what the book was about.

"Kitchen" tells the story of Mikage, a young woman whose parents passed away when she was young and who grew up in the care of her grandmother who passes away just as the book opens, leaving her without family or connections or money. Mikage is just a normal young adult, working a job, who is now alone. She will face a choice, a silly little moment one night, where either choice she makes is equally fine, but each choice will lead down a very different path for her and another person. That she recognizes this moment for its significance is the beauty of this novel and the ultimate takeaway for our own lives.

Éclair Blanche: a predictably mixed batch of yuri stories (Manga Review)

Éclair Blanche - 6/10

I'm not a huge fan of one-shot manga, so anthology collections like Éclair Blanche (Yen Press) aren't meant for me. So before reading my review, feel free to read Erika's over on Okazu since she both can talk about the important history of anthologies in women's literature in Japan as well as being a fan of anthologies in yuri manga. Since I know I'm biased against one-shots, Erika's review serves as a nice counter-point to mine.

Éclair Blanche is the second in the series of Éclair anthologies to be released in English. Like most anthologies, it is many individual stories by many mangakas. Some are cute, some are bittersweet, some are sad. But more to my main point, some are well done, and some...not so much. I enjoyed it none-the-less, but not because it was a consistently high quality collection. I enjoyed it because of the ones I liked and in spite of the ones that were either middling or outright problematic.

Missed it Monday: Wake Up Sleeping Beauty volume 6 - series conclusion (Manga Review)

Missed it Monday is the ongoing column where I review manga/anime that I didn't get to read/watch when they first came out.

Wake Up Sleeping Beauty vol. 6 - 8/10 (*see full scoring rubric below)

This will be a simple and short review. Wake Up Sleeping Beauty (Kodansha Comics) came to its conclusion with volume 6. It was every bit the satisfying conclusion I'd hoped for in a series that gradually won me over with its sweetness, earnestness, and complete sincerity. It really was a very well done final volume to a wonderful series.

Series summary: Shizu, a young teen, is inhabited by several ghosts. Each one has time where they are in control of her body. They often communicate using a journal to write to one another. Her father and mother think she has multiple personality disorder and her father forces her to stay at home, in the outbuilding on their large property. One day, a new housekeeper, Tetsu, begins working there to prove to his father that he doesn't need to go to college. He believes he can't go to school because his mom is in a coma and her medical bills are hurting the family. By earning a wage, he can help keep her on life support longer.

Perfect World volume 1 strikes a great balance between characters and exploring the reality of living with a physical disability (Manga Review)

Perfect World vol. 1 - 7.5/10 (*see scoring rubric below)

Perfect World vol. 1 (Kodansha Comics) by Rie Aruga is a josei manga about a paraplegic man and a young woman who knew each other in high school and reconnect as adults. First, I am so glad to have another josei series released in English. As much as I love my high-school romances, I really do like reading about adults and want a lot more josei to be translated. But, perhaps most importantly, Perfect World seems to do a tremendous job balancing depicting the hard realities of significant physical disability with the romantic genre.

Tsugumi is working to become an interior designer after art school. At a company get together, she is reunited with a former crush from high school, Itsuki, who is now a junior architect at a good firm. They have fun catching up and enjoy their time at the party, but when Itsuki leaves, she notes that he can't get up and that's when he asks the waiter to bring his wheelchair over.

The Scientist and the Forger by Jehane Ragai (Book Review)

The Scientist and the Forger - 6/10

If you've been reading this blog for a long time (and I hope you have!) you may remember that one of the things I enjoy reading about the most is art forgery. I love art in general (late 19th century realism and post-impressionism), and I love forgery (Catch Me If You Can is one of my favorite movies, and I have a great personal forgery story from middle school for some other time too). So putting those two things together means art forgery is one of my favorite topics. I love the technical skill, I love the intrigue, I love the ultimate detective work that uncovers the truth, I love the psychology of the forgers. It's the complete package. So when I heard about this book, The Scientist and the Forger, about the intersection of modern analysis techniques with art forgery, I was super excited.

However, in practice, the book doesn't quite achieve what I had hoped. Published in 2015, it's a still pretty current look at state of the art scientific analysis of paintings. Each chapter is devoted to a particular analytic technique and some of the works it's been used on to confirm (or not) their legitimacy. The author tries to strike a balance between a rigorous explanation of the science behind each technique and the increasingly complex machinery needed for that analysis, and descriptions of the stories surrounding the forgeries, or the uncovering of previously unknown masterpieces.

Nameless Asterism volume 5 takes the cheap way out (Manga Review)

Nameless Asterism vol. 5 - 7/10 (*see full scoring rubric below).

Nameless Asterism has been both a good and problematic series in turns, and with volume 5 it comes to a somewhat unsatisfactory conclusion. There was a lot to like in this volume, but the final resolution to the central love triangle was disappointing. It's going to be hard to talk about this volume without spoilers, so you've been warned. This is a SPOILER HEAVY review of volume 5.

Series summary: Washio likes Kotooka, Kotooka likes Tsukasa, and Tsukasa likes Washio. That's been the dynamic from day one in this series. It follows these middle school girls as they develop their own romantic and (perhaps) sexual awakenings. Each is at a pretty different point of development as well as self-acceptance. But not only are they a love triangle, they are the closest of friends. There's also Asakura who likes Tsukasa and is friends with her brother, Subaru who dresses up like Tsukasa at times. Volume 5 is the final volume in the series and has to bring it all to a close. Sadly, it just can't quite pull it off, it's a slightly flippant ending especially given the angst of this volume.

Convenience Store Woman - liberating views of what is and is not valued by society (book Review)

Convenience Store Woman - 8/10

I finally got a chance to read Sayaka Murata's "Convenience Store Woman," a quick and quirky novella about a 36 year old woman who has worked in a convenience store in Japan ever since she graduated high school. This book is by turns charming and revealing and was a very fast read.

Keiko, now 36, recounts how she never understood why people thought she was strange. Her actions always seemed logical to her, even in childhood. One amazing example was from elementary school. Two boys were fighting and everyone else was screaming "stop them stop them." So she does the logical thing, gets  a shovel, and beats one on the head. That got him to stop instantly. Problems solved. She can't understand why she was the one in trouble afterwards. So quickly enough she learns that the easiest way to get through the day was to mimic the social conventions of other people even if she didn't understand or care about the conventions (or the people) at all. As a result, she graduated high-school quietly and went on to start university.