Comics Roundup #67: A Love of Books and Food

Although I don’t want to jinx myself, I’m celebrating a little because it seems that my blogging slump is lifting. Here I am again with another batch of reviews! This time, I have two mangas and a graphic novel that are all light, humorous, sometimes silly reads.

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Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-San, Vol. 2 by Honda (illus.), transl. from the Japanese by Amanda Haley

Genre

Contemporary; Humor

Series

Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-San

Pubbed

2016

From Goodreads

Whether it’s foreigners asking for “JAPANESE EROTIC MANGA,” navigating the tricky government definition of “morally harmful material,” or helping a customer who’s awfully “criminally organized,” there’s rarely a dull moment for Honda-san. The true stories of a Japanese bookstore employee can be stranger than fiction! (Goodreads)

My thoughts

I’ve decided to continue with the second volume of this humorous manga series. The series seems to be semi-autobiographical and is about the experiences of an employee at a Japanese bookstore. The bookstore’s name isn’t mentioned, and all the employees are drawn wearing a mask. The protagonist (the author, Honda) wears a skull-face mask. In addition to focusing on Honda’s experiences working in the bookstore and interacting with a variety of customers and professionals in the Japanese book publishing industry, this volume also touches a bit more on Honda’s job as a manga artist.

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“Black Buck” by Mateo Askaripour

I guess I’ve been in a blogging slump lately because I’ve been doing everything possible to avoid typing up book reviews, and I’m not exactly enthused to do other posts either. I don’t know why this is, but if it wasn’t for Wyrd & Wonder (and an ARC I need to review), I probably wouldn’t be doing much on my blog. As such, I’m WAY behind on reviews. Here’s the beginning of my attempt to catch up.

I read Black Buck in mid-March — that’s how long I’ve been procrastinating on writing up this reflection on it. It’s one of the most surprising books I’ve read this year. I read it for a bookclub I’m part of with two friends. However, my friends were more eager than I to read it. Actually, I was very against reading this book. I didn’t know much about it other than that it’s about some guy working on Wall Street and that fact alone made me immediately dislike it and assume I would hate it and probably not even finish the book. I didn’t want to put myself through that torture. But I was so wrong.

Genre

Contemporary; Humor – satire

Series

n/a

Pubbed

January 2021

Top Ten Tuesday #47: Funny Ones

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic:

Books That Made Me Laugh

These are a few books that managed to elicit a laugh from me… not that that’s a hard thing to do, lol.

Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-San, Vol. 1 by Honda (illus.)

The first in a manga series about a bookseller who works at a comic book shop. Since I also work at a bookstore, I could strongly relate to all the situations mentioned in the comic. All the booksellers are drawn wearing a mask, and the protagonist, Honda, wears a skull-face mask. It’s a funny read. I highly recommend it.

Comics Roundup #49: “Adulthood Is a Myth”

The last two graphic novels I read in 2020 were lucky finds in my library’s Libby app collection. I first tried An Embarrassment of Witches by Sophie Goldstein and Jenn Jordan, which was a fun read, and then picked up this one because I’ve seen it mentioned by many bloggers and vloggers.

Adulthood Is a Myth by Sarah Andersen (illus.)

Genre

Humor

Series

Sarah’s Scribbles, book 1

Pubbed

2016

Goodreads summary

These casually drawn, perfectly on-point comics by the hugely popular young Brooklyn-based artist Sarah Andersen are for the rest of us. They document the wasting of entire beautiful weekends on the internet, the unbearable agony of holding hands on the street with a gorgeous guy, and dreaming all day of getting home and back into pajamas. In other words, the horrors and awkwardnesses of young modern life. Oh and they are totally not autobiographical. At all.

Illustrated Books: “Sky High” and “Spot, the Cat”

I’m surprised at myself that I haven’t read much illustrated books or comics so far this year. I wonder what’s going on with me. These two books bring me to a total of 4 illustrated children’s books read so far. Hopefully I’ll read a few more before the year is done.

Both of the books I’ll discuss in this post where cover buys. I love looking at illustrations of architecture and both books have illustrations of buildings on their covers. Naturally, I picked them up, ran my hands over the cover, and convinced myself to purchase them. I bought them at two different independent bookstores and I’m glad to now know that both were good purchases.

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Sky High by Germano Zullo, illus. by Albertine

Genre:

Children’s Humor

Pubbed:

2012

Goodreads summary:

In this charming illustrated tale, two competing neighbors begin embellishing their mansions, only to find themselves caught up in a race to build the tallest, most decadent skyscraper featuring solid gold doors, diamond-encrusted pillars, grand ballrooms, expensive paintings, live tigers, and indoor swimming pools—with consequences inevitable, and not. Kids will love spotting the funny details hidden in this witty take on an age-old moral, while their parents—particularly any who’ve ever undertaken a remodel—will chuckle with recognition. (Goodreads)

“Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops” by Jen Campbell

I read Jen Campbell’s Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops a couple weeks ago because I’d completed Shaun Bythell’s The Diary of a Bookseller and wasn’t ready to stop reading about hilarious experiences in bookshops.

Genre:

Nonfiction, humor

Pubbed:

2012

Goodreads summary:

This Sunday Times bestseller is a miscellany of hilarious and peculiar bookshop moments: ‘Can books conduct electricity?’

‘My children are just climbing your bookshelves: that’s ok… isn’t it?’

A John Cleese Twitter question [‘What is your pet peeve?’], first sparked the ‘Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops’ blog, which grew over three years into one bookseller’s collection of ridiculous conversations on the shop floor.

“Horrorstör” by Grady Hendrix, illus. by Michael Rogalski

I feel deceived. Well, just a little. Somehow, I convinced myself that this book is about zombies in Ikea. I don’t know why I thought this or where the idea of zombies came from, but I was wrong; close to what actually happens in the book, but wrong. There are no zombies in Ikea. 😦

Genre:

Horror

Pubbed:

2014

Goodreads summary:

Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking.

“Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things” by Jenny Lawson

A couple weeks ago, I was on a roll reading memoirs about mental health. I started with Susan Cahalan’s Brain on Fire, which pricked my interested, then picked up Madness by Marya Hornbacher, which was absorbing though sometimes unsettling, and moved on to Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson, which was totally hilarious.

Quick summary:

“In Furiously Happy, a humor memoir tinged with just enough tragedy and pathos to make it worthwhile, Jenny Lawson examines her own experience with severe depression and a host of other conditions, and explains how it has led her to live life to the fullest.” (Goodreads)

My thoughts:

I cut that Goodreads summary short because that’s what the book’s about and all you need to know going in. You don’t even need to read the rest of my review, unless you’re really interested in knowing what I thought of the book, because it’s best to just hop right in. Trust me, you’ll enjoy it.

Top Ten Tuesday #21: Something to Laugh About

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic:

Ten Books that Made Me Laugh (or at least chuckle)

I thought I would have difficulty with this one since I don’t read humor or many books that are funny, but as I made the list, I thought of more books to add until I had 10.