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This post written by Clarissa Shrine of the Morning Mist
by Hiroki Ugawa
[cover name=shrineofthemorningmist]
This often comedic series, about schoolgirls who serve as shrine maidens and fight evil monsters, gently spoofs other series such as “Sailor Moon.” Several sisters and their school friends use divine magic to protect their shrine, their town, and a distant cousin who has the ability to see the other world. In the meantime, of course, their school gets smashed up by giant monsters and wacky hijinks ensue.
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Where to Find It
You’re going to have to check a bookstore for this one. Sorry about that.
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This post written by Clarissa Train Man: A Shojo Manga
by Machiko Ocha
[cover name=trainman]
This single-volume manga is a love story from the point of view of a male geek, who steps in when a drunk man harasses a beautiful woman on a train. She sends the geek a thank-you gift, and he consults other anonymous users on Japan’s hugely popular web-based forum, 2channel, for advice on what to do next. He feels totally outclassed by her, due to his extreme nerdiness, but he also can’t throw away his chance to contact her again. The other anonymous users, made up of various people around Japan, try to help him make up for his lack of social skills, dating experience, etc., giving him the nickname of “Train Man.” The story is based on events that unfolded on the actual 2channel, and despite probably being a publicity stunt, the compelling story (and its lack of copyright) has resulted in several manga, a play, a movie, and a TV series from various sources. This manga is very well translated, especially considering the complications of Japanese internet slang, etc. It’s funny and touching, and one of those rare romances that’s great for people who like love stories and people who hate love stories.
You can read the first 30 pages online at the publisher’s website.
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Where to Find It
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[linkplus name=”Train Man: A Shojo Manga” url=”http://csul.iii.com/record=b23934960~S0″ cchasone=”true”]
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This post written by Clarissa Mushishi
by Yuki Urushibara
[cover name=mushishi]
This is a sometimes strange, beautiful, episodic story about “mushi,” supernatural creatures who are usually considered by humans to be ghosts or monsters, and a “mushishi,” a human who can see and interact with them. It’s the basis for the beautiful, watercolor-tinged Mushishi anime series and a recent live-action film. The mushishi, Ginko, has striking white hair and green eyes due to an incident with mushi when he was a child. He travels from town to town studying the mushi and helping people who have been bothered or “cursed” by them, so he’s somewhere between a scientist and an exorcist. It takes place sometime in the past (Ginko wears a shirt and pants, but everything else indicates the time period is somewhere from 1600-1900), but since the tone of the whole series is a bit dreamy, the particulars don’t really matter. Most of the stories stand alone and aren’t strongly connected to the other stories.
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Where to Find It
[linkplus title=Mushishi url=”http://csul.iii.com/search/X?SEARCH=t:(mushishi)&SORT=DX&l=eng”]
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This post written by Clarissa Paradise Kiss
by Ai Yazawa
[cover name=paradisekiss]
By the same author as Nana, this series features an abnormally tall but otherwise unremarkable high-school girl, Yukari. Yukari accidentally becomes the inspiration and main model for a wildly creative fashion-design group consisting of an elegant transvestite, a pierced punk guy with a soft heart, a young woman who wears “sweet lolita” fashion (she looks like a Victorian porcelain doll), and the charismatic, brilliant, bisexual head designer George, who pushes Yukari to become an independent woman. The art is really gorgeous and the story is very entertaining (the characters regularly make remarks about the manga itself, and complain about how much “screen time” they’re getting). Unlike Nana, this series is fairly light, and doesn’t get overly melodramatic.
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Where to Find It
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This post written by Clarissa Emma
by Kaoru Mori
Emma is a generally well-researched, charming story about the life of a maid in Victorian England. She’s different from other maids because she knows how to read (and she likes to). Naturally, there is cross-class romance–she falls in love with a wealthy young man!–and lots of details about the daily life of of the period. It’s surprisingly funny in parts, too. We first saw advertisements for this during our honeymoon in Japan, and I never thought it would be released in the US, but now it has been. Despite the frilly dresses and the theme of romance, when this series was published in Japan, it ran in a magazine aimed at men. (Japan is really different sometimes.)
This is not related to the Jane Austen novel Emma.
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Where to Find It
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This post written by Clarissa Nana
by Yazawa Ai
[cover title=nana]
Two young women with the same name (one ordinary, slightly ditzy country girl and one rebellious aspiring rock star) encounter love, sex, and heartbreak in Tokyo. It’s been a huge hit in Japan, already resulting an animated TV series, two live-action films, video games, and a tribute album with major Japanese pop stars. This series has striking, stylized art.
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Where to Find It
[linkplus name=”Nana” url=”http://csul.iii.com/search/X?SEARCH=t:(nana)+and+a:(yazawa)&SORT=DX&l=eng” series=true cchasone=notvolume1]
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This post written by Clint Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
by J. K. Rowling
[cover name=harrypotter]
You may think this book is for kids, but it’s smart enough that adults can enjoy it, too. If you somehow haven’t heard about these books, Harry Potter is an orphan living a very boring, miserable life with his aunt and uncle. He enters a world of magic when he is invited to Hogwarts, a school for wizards. For the first time in his life, Harry starts making friends and goes from being a nobody to being a celebrity. Unfortunately, something evil is going on at Hogwarts, and it is up to Harry and his friends to stop it.
You can look it up on Wikipedia.
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Where to Find It
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This post written by Clint Master and Commander
by Patrick O’Brian
[cover name=masterandcommander]
Jack Aubrey, a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, makes friends with Stephen Maturin, a doctor, naturalist, and geek. When Jack is given command of HMS Speedy, he invites Stephen to come along and be the ship’s surgeon. Jack is an absolutely fantastic commander, but he’s completely lost away from the sea. Stephen is an absolutely fantastic surgeon and scientist, but he’s completely lost on a ship. This “Odd Couple” relationship is really the main focus of the story.
There is plenty of action, too. Jack Aubrey is based on Thomas Cochrane, one of the most awesome naval officers ever, and many of the battles described in the book and the rest of the series actually happened.
There is a fair amount of naval slang in the book. If you don’t know what a “fo’c’sle” is, neither does Stephen. You can count on him to ask about some of the words, but if he doesn’t, or if your eyes glaze over when Jack explains what a mizzenmast is, don’t worry. You don’t need to know. If you do really want to know all the details and definitions, though, you might want to check out the book A Sea of Words.
You can look it up on Wikipedia. You can also read some of it online at Google Books.
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Other books you might want to check out
- A Sea of Words, 3rd Edition, by Dean King, John B. Hattendorf, and J. Worth Estes
Defines all of the terms used in the series, and gives a whole lot of other information that you might find interesting if you are really into the series.
- Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain, by Robert Harvey
This is a good biography of Thomas Cochrane, the person Jack Aubrey (and Horatio Hornblower and pretty much every other fictional sea captain) is based on. This is one of those times when truth is stranger than fiction: I’m amazed by a lot of the crazy stunts Cochrane was able to get away with.
Where to Find It
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This post written by Clint Dune
by Frank Herbert
[cover name=dune]
Dune is a science fiction classic. It is set in the far future on a desert planet, the only one in all the galaxy to the spice melange, which allows interstellar travel and grants people psychic powers. The Duke of this planet is overthrown, and his son eventually unites the world’s population and takes back the planet. Actually, the story is far more complex than this, but you’re better off reading it than my summary of it.
Dune is actually the first book of a much longer series, but many people think the others aren’t as good.
You can look it up on Wikipedia.
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Where to Find It
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This post written by Clint Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
by Hayao Miyazaki
[cover name=nausicaa]
This is a story about Nausicaä, a young woman in a post-apocalyptic future, one thousand years after the Seven Days of Fire destroyed the old world. Humans live in small kingdoms scattered around the Sea of Corruption, a forest of giant mushrooms and huge insects that is slowly taking over the globe. Whatever you may think about manga (Japanese comics), this series is epic. It’s packed full of ideas, has very detailed illustrations, and has a memorable main character.
Watch out, though. There are several different printings of the series. They contain exactly the same story, but one is in four volumes, one is seven volumes, and one is in ten volumes. They are shaped differently, so this shouldn’t cause too much confusion.
You can look it up on Wikipedia.
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Where to Find It
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