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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Last Couple Books Read in 2021

It’s been a while since I’ve done a review, and whenever this happens, I feel as if I’ve forgotten how to write them. That’s how I feel now. It’s partly due to not having written one in a while and also having forgotten some details about the books I read. But, since my plan with this blog is to chat about every book I read, I’d like to post something about the books I read during the last months of 2021.

Those last months were a very busy, very stressful time for me, which is why I’ve delayed chatting about the books until now. Things got so overwhelming that I didn’t blog as much as I usually did and had a bout of reading slumpiness that lasted until… a few weeks ago. It was probably my longest reading slump. But now that I really feel back to my old self, I’d like to catch up on the MANY blogging and reading things I wanted to do since the slump hit — starting with these reviews.

I read all of these back in September last year, so I’ve forgotten much.

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Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger

Genre

MG Fantasy

Series

Keeper of the Lost Cities, book 1

Pubbed

2012

Quick summary

In this middle grade fantasy, we meet Sophie Foster, a 12-year-old, telepathic girl who is often treated as an outcast — even by her own family. However, one day she sees a boy with very interesting blue eyes at the museum and he helps her to realize that she does not belong in the human world. He tells her that she’s an elf and must leave her family to protect them.

Comics Roundup #17: “Wolf Children”

A while back, I read a review of Wolf Children that made me seek to experience the story myself. Since I couldn’t find a place online to watch it, I decided to get the manga and read it. I was drawn to the beautiful illustrations but, as with all my book purchases, I immediately forgot about it once I shelved it in my bookcase.

It wasn’t until the Tome Topple Readathon rolled around that I sought it out to read for a challenge — Read a graphic novel (over 500 pages). I was glad to finally read the book after being curious about it for so long and sample its beautiful art.

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Wolf Children: Ame & Yuki by Mamoru Hosoda, art by Yu, character design by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, trans. by Jocelyne Allen

Genre: I don’t know

Quick summary:

Wolf Children is about a woman who falls in love with a man who is half wolf, the last of his kind. Circumstances lead her to raise their two children on her own, which she does with great patience and care. She never complains despite the difficulties she encounters in raising half-wolf children, but instead faces her challenges with optimism and a smile.

The children are complete opposites of each other. As a child, the older sibling, Yuki, is a spirited girl who loves to explore and experience new things and is driven by her curiosity about the world. In contrast, her young brother, Ame, is introspective, quiet, observant, and most of all, cautious. However as the two mature, their experiences lead them to choose unexpected paths.

Tough Travels #5: Strongholds

Tough Travels is a monthly meme that recommends fantasy books based on tropes, themes, and clichés cited in Diana Wynne Jones’s The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. The meme was created by Nathan at Fantasy Review Barn and is now hosted by Fantasy Faction.

Since I haven’t read many fantasy books, I instead create my list at the end of the month, after reading everyone else’s, and include recommendations from them that are interesting to me.

August’s theme (I’m late, again):

Strongholds

The Tough Guide offers information on various kinds of fantasy strongholds. For example, you might be looking for castles, complete with ‘frowning battlements, slit windows and multiple defensible spiral stairways inside’ and which ‘occasionally adorn the heights for pictorial effect’.

Or perhaps towers, which ‘stand alone in waste areas and almost always belong to wizards.’ Towers are often ‘several stories high, round, doorless, virtually windowless, and composed of smooth blocks of masonry that make them very hard to climb. The Rule is that there is also a strong no-entry spell, often backed up by a guardian demon.’

Tough Travels #4: Adepts

Tough Travels is a monthly meme that recommends fantasy books based on tropes, themes, and clichés cited in Diana Wynne Jones’s The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. The meme was created by Nathan at Fantasy Review Barn and is now hosted by Fantasy Faction.

Since I haven’t read many fantasy books, I instead create my list at the end of the month, after reading everyone else’s, and include recommendations from them that are interesting to me.

July’s theme (I’m late):

Adepts

The Tough Guide defines an ADEPT as ‘one who has taken what amounts to a Post-graduate course in Magic. If a Magic User is given this title, you can be sure he/she is fairly hot stuff. However, the title is neutral and does not imply that the Adept is either Good or Evil.’

Weekend Reads #41: I…Can’t Be Seen With You in Public

Weekend Reads is a weekly discussion on a variety of topics. At the end of the post, I’ll include what I plan to read on the weekend.

This weekend’s question:

What books are you embarrassed to be seen reading in public?

Weekend Reads #40: Blog Update

Weekend Reads is a weekly discussion on a variety of topics. At the end of the post, I’ll include what I plan to read on the weekend.

I do not have a discussion question this weekend. Instead, this is an update post to let you know I’m back. I don’t know if anyone realized that I was gone for a while there. It’s been, what, 2 weeks since I last posted on here and before that I was a little sporadic. Things have been busy and I’ve been in a foul mood since the year started. As for blogging, I didn’t feel motivated to do posts. I kept reading, of course, so now I’m way behind on book reviews.

However, the good news is that my mood took a positive spin a few days ago so now I feel bright and cherry. (The random warm temperatures are probably what caused this mood boost.) My plan is to get back to my somewhat consistent posting schedule on here and back to interacting with all my fellow bloggers and commenters. Hopefully, it all goes well. Be on the lookout for reviews and other fun posts.