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juushikaTitle: Wandering Son vols 1-4
Author: Takako Shimura
Translator: Matt Thorn
Published: Fantagraphics, (2011-2013) 2003-2005
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 210+228+224+~100=760
Total Page Count: 332,870
Text Number: 1168-1171
Read Because: on NYPL's Beginner's Guide to LGBTQ+ Manga, hardbacks borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: 2.5 stars, review of the series "entire"—I DNF'd midway through volume 4. Slice of life is lovely, and it's the right pacing for a gentle exploration of the gender identities of young trans kids; it's predictably conservative trans representation, but there's room for the organic inconsistency and uncertainty which sells the character arcs. But 15 volumes is too much room, and the hijinks and supporting characters grow tedious. Shimura's voice is gentle and her style round and clear (except that, as always, it can be hard to tell characters apart). I wanted to like this, and I'm still glad it exists; but I wasn't getting enough out of it to persist through 11 more volumes.
Title: The Magic Meadow
Author: Alexander Key
Published: Open Road Media, 2014 (1975)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 125
Total Page Count: 332,995
Text Number: 1172
Read Because: reviewed byrachelmanija, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Five children and their nurse teleport from a derelict hospital to a beautiful meadow. This is brief and engaging read that does almost nothing I expected—it's effectively a science fantasy take on the portal fantasy trope, and the entire plot is a gentle mystery: what's the nature of the world the children are leaving, and the world they're entering, and how did they get there? It's successfully paced against the struggle to survive in a new place; I would have loved the cozy, perilous, mysterious atmosphere as a kid, but as an adult reader it feels a little sketched-in, particularly the ending.
Reader beware re: the depiction of disability. I personally dislike mystery illnesses as a trope, but it suits the general vibe. The children arepartially cured of their conditions in the portal world, which is handled with relatively delicacy but still is what it is.
Title: Autobiography of a Geisha (芸者、苦闘の半生涯, Geisha, Half a Lifetime of Pain and Struggle)
Author: Sayo Masuda
Translator: G.G. Rowley
Published: Columbia University Press, 2005 (1957)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 185
Total Page Count: 333,180
Text Number: 1173
Read Because: recommended byambyr, borrowed from OpenLibrary
Review: The poverty and disenfranchisement could make this a painful read, and it's brutal in its honesty. But Masuda's voice is aware and immediate—she moves quickly through her memoir, she sketches other people distinctly, she balances pathos with an expected liveliness that approaches humor. It creates a surprisingly accessible view into the rarely discussed (but oft imagined) realities of life for a bathhouse geisha in the 1930s and 40s, but Masuda expands from her memoir into a broader view that critiques the effects of misogyny and politics on poor women in rural Japan. My previous touchstone on geisha was Iwasaki's Geisha: A Life, which I also recommend; I appreciate the memoirs even better in tandem, as they explore vastly different experiences within a shared, flawed system.
Author: Takako Shimura
Translator: Matt Thorn
Published: Fantagraphics, (2011-2013) 2003-2005
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 210+228+224+~100=760
Total Page Count: 332,870
Text Number: 1168-1171
Read Because: on NYPL's Beginner's Guide to LGBTQ+ Manga, hardbacks borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: 2.5 stars, review of the series "entire"—I DNF'd midway through volume 4. Slice of life is lovely, and it's the right pacing for a gentle exploration of the gender identities of young trans kids; it's predictably conservative trans representation, but there's room for the organic inconsistency and uncertainty which sells the character arcs. But 15 volumes is too much room, and the hijinks and supporting characters grow tedious. Shimura's voice is gentle and her style round and clear (except that, as always, it can be hard to tell characters apart). I wanted to like this, and I'm still glad it exists; but I wasn't getting enough out of it to persist through 11 more volumes.
Title: The Magic Meadow
Author: Alexander Key
Published: Open Road Media, 2014 (1975)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 125
Total Page Count: 332,995
Text Number: 1172
Read Because: reviewed by
rachelmanija, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County LibraryReview: Five children and their nurse teleport from a derelict hospital to a beautiful meadow. This is brief and engaging read that does almost nothing I expected—it's effectively a science fantasy take on the portal fantasy trope, and the entire plot is a gentle mystery: what's the nature of the world the children are leaving, and the world they're entering, and how did they get there? It's successfully paced against the struggle to survive in a new place; I would have loved the cozy, perilous, mysterious atmosphere as a kid, but as an adult reader it feels a little sketched-in, particularly the ending.
Reader beware re: the depiction of disability. I personally dislike mystery illnesses as a trope, but it suits the general vibe. The children are
Title: Autobiography of a Geisha (芸者、苦闘の半生涯, Geisha, Half a Lifetime of Pain and Struggle)
Author: Sayo Masuda
Translator: G.G. Rowley
Published: Columbia University Press, 2005 (1957)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 185
Total Page Count: 333,180
Text Number: 1173
Read Because: recommended by
ambyr, borrowed from OpenLibraryReview: The poverty and disenfranchisement could make this a painful read, and it's brutal in its honesty. But Masuda's voice is aware and immediate—she moves quickly through her memoir, she sketches other people distinctly, she balances pathos with an expected liveliness that approaches humor. It creates a surprisingly accessible view into the rarely discussed (but oft imagined) realities of life for a bathhouse geisha in the 1930s and 40s, but Masuda expands from her memoir into a broader view that critiques the effects of misogyny and politics on poor women in rural Japan. My previous touchstone on geisha was Iwasaki's Geisha: A Life, which I also recommend; I appreciate the memoirs even better in tandem, as they explore vastly different experiences within a shared, flawed system.
