Books

Book 1,047: Confessions of a Shy Baker – Masaomi Ito

When I went through my massive manga streak while slogging through the Hockey Ever After series, this was one of the ones that was immediately available via my local library. It had older characters who I thought might be nicer to read, there seem to be a lot of high school/university age character manga, with fewer adult and real-world overall.

This is the story of Toshimitsu, a real estate business owner who bakes in his spare time, and Gonta, a care giver, who have been together for some time. The story revolves around their day-to-day lives and the stresses at work (both business and personal) and their ability to relax at home.

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Books

Book 1,041: Would You Like to Be a Family? – koyama

Apparently, there are three stories in this one short collection, and I only remember one, so that doesn’t bode well. The biggest struggle for me was the style. I’m not the biggest fan of the super stretched out/tall bodies and super angular faces. I think it just makes them all look creepy.

The story itself was actually very cute (or least the one I remember) Takemura is a shy loner who had a bad bullying experience in high school, so he keeps to himself, but his coworker Natsui is outgoing and has tried to engage him before. They meet one evening in the grocery store and Takemura finds out Natsui has a kid and can’t get out of a dinner invite.

Before you know it, they’re all hanging out all the time. There’s even an awkward moment where Takemura has to go pick up the kid (cannot remember their names) and it goes well even though Takemura is SOO nervous. In the end the kid is the one that’s like hey you need to move in here, we’re always happier when you’re here. I’m 99% sure the book was sex free and that anything that did or didn’t happen was 100% off page and it was kind of refreshing knowing how edgy manga/yaoi/BL can get.

Recommendation: It’s a cute read. I’m a little concerned I have ZERO recollection of the other stories, but the entire book was pretty short, so they must’ve been even shorter. Illustration style wasn’t my jam, but I could see where others like it as there are quite a few in this style.

Books

Books 1,037-1,040: I Think Our Son Is Gay, Vols. 1-4 (I Think #1-4) – Okura

Y’all, I can’t even tell you how adorable these books are. Think Heartstopper, but without the getting together (they’re younger than Nick and Charlie) and the beautiful acceptance of My Brother’s Husband and you’ll start to see where these fall.

These are told from mom Tomoko’s point of view, and she is the most loving and accepting person. She’s started to note that Hiroki, her oldest son, slips up saying “he’s handsome” or “my husband” and she just goes with the flow. She doesn’t ask questions or ask for declarations, she just let’s it slide and tries to make an accepting home for her son.

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Books

Book 1,036: Chef’s Kiss – Jarrett Melendez

I didn’t realize it at the time, but this has many similarities to Bloom, but with enough of a twist/reversal that it makes sense that I read it right after. It was purely coincidence though, this was one of the half dozen graphic novels/manga that were immediately downloadable from my local library. I won’t compare too much as it’s not really fair to either, but I just got a kick out of that realizing it now as I sit down to write my response (months later—whoops).

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ARC, Books

Book 967: Our Dreams at Dusk (Our Dreams at Dusk #1) – Yuhki Kamatani

I found this one on a list of manga to read after really enjoying My Love: Mix-up! along with I Hear the Sunspot. So when I saw my local library had a copy of this I put it on hold and grabbed it before our weekend away earlier this month.

At heart, Our Dreams at Dusk is a coming-of-age and coming-out story. Tasuku has moved to a new town and he’s been outed and has to come to terms with either being open about it or trying to continue to hide it. So this one is not as light and fluffy as many of the other BL Manga I’ve read.

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