Books

Book 679: Our Dining Table – Mita Ori

This is another great introduction into manga in that it’s easy to follow the reverse (for western readers) style of reading any type of book. The lack of explicit sex and (often internalized) homophobia also make this more appealing to western audiences that might not necessarily want to read/see something that explicit.

I think I’m narrowing in on a type of yaoi that I enjoy reading. This is a lot like Go for it, Nakamura!, in that there’s a purity around 95% of it. It’s so stinking adorable and this is definitely one of those books where you read a page/panel and put the book to your chest and sigh with a goofy grin on your face.

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ARC, Books

Book 676: Sense of Wonder – Bill Schelley

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I said I’d take a look at this after the publisher reached out to me about a review copy.* As much as I love the MCU and the various graphic novels I read (especially LGBTQ+ ones), I haven’t read comics since the early 1990s when I read a ton of Star Wars comics at the local Borders, I was going into this blind when it came to comic fandom.

Sense of Wonder is a deep dive into comic fandom from its earliest moments to the colossal behemoth it has become today all through the lens of Schelly’s life and experiences. I had no idea that fanzines were a thing back in the 1960s (oh hey, internet generation) and thanks in part to Schelly’s wonderful writing style and the methodical yet meandering journey he takes you on in this work, I now long for the days of pre-internet community building via snail mail, rides from parents to other parts of town, and collect phone calls.

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Books

Book 673: Fence Vol. 3 (Fence #3) – C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, and Joana Lafuente

I wasn’t obsessively looking forward to this since I had issues with my timing of reading the first two volumes, but when I went to grab Go for it, Nakamura! from the library and saw this was available, I grabbed it too.

This picks up right where Fence, Vol. 2 left off and there’s no recap or anything as these were originally being released periodically and read as periodic comics. Like I said in the last review about the timing between Fence, Vol. 1 and Volume 2. I should’ve just waited and read them back-to-back. It would’ve been a more rewarding experience and I doubt I would’ve been quite so disappointed in this one.

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Books

Book 672: Go for it, Nakamura! – Syundei

Adorable.

I could probably leave it at that, but since this is a blog and not just Twitter, I won’t.

Go for it, Nakamura! is a Japanese manga that’s on quite a few Best LGBT+ manga lists, so I thought I’d give it a try. I honestly wasn’t sure if it was going to be closer to My Brother’s Husband, Vol. 1 and My Brother’s Husband, Vol. 2 or more like Don’t Be Cruel #1 and #2 or #3 and #4. Thankfully, it was more like the latter, with no sex scenes (these are high school kids after all).

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Books

Book 666: Beta Test (#gaymers #2) – Annabeth Albert

I managed to restrain myself to only reading two squeal-inducing pretty much swoon-worthy MM romances this go around, and it has nothing to do with the library not having #3 available right away, so you’re welcome.

Seriously though, why are these things like some sort of drug? They’re not rocket science, they’re well written but they’re not going to stay with me forever (I’ll forget them within weeks if not days), and they’re definitely not anywhere close to high brow, but they’re SO DAMN GOOD. Now I’m off on a tangential internet search on studies of what romance novels do to people’s brains. [There appear to be plenty of studies but mostly on women and mostly, it seems, derogatory.]

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