duckprintspress

okay, let's do this... so like. basically all I've done since last Wednesday (when I had surgery) is read. The lines often blur, and I keep having to reread stuff cause I'll realize I got through a paragraph or a page without actually getting any meaning out of it, so it's been a slog, but I haven't been able to brain anything else, either, so I just. kept at it. (My surgery went fine, and I'm healing quickly, I'm just absolutely walloped by fatigue. I tried not taking my painkillers today, because I have work I need to do, and I hoped that not taking them would help, and the result is that I'm sliiiiightly more pain... and still fatigue-walloped. oh well.)

1. What are you currently reading?

• Cooking with Monsters: Harm-to-Table by Jordan Alsaqa: this is the sequel to a comic I was pretty meh about, and I'm still pretty meh about it. I can't even really put my finger on why, it just feels like it's missing some spark that'd really draw me.
• this is the longest I've gone without making progress on Daomu Biji vol. 2 since I started in January. I just haven't been able to brain Chinese, I haven't been studying much either. I need to make sure I don't lose the habits, tho. I've worked too hard to fuck this up now.

2. What have you recently finished reading?

• Copper Coins vol. 1 to 3 by Mu Su Li: I've previously read a fantranslation, so this is a reread for me, and that was intentional. I figured a reread of a not-too-complicated book was about what I could brain. And I was right. I think I liked this one better on a second read-through, the dynamic between Xue Xian and Xuanmin hit better for me this time.
• DNF: The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson: I cannot fathom how this mess of a book got nominated for a Hugo. That it has a higher average rating than The Tainted Cup makes me despair for the future of Western fantasy literature. Maybe that sounds like hyperbole, but I mean it fairly literally, in the sense of: I already often feel that I do not click with books that are popular in the Western queer spec-fic-o-verse. For a book like this to get such high ratings means that I will increasingly find no place for myself in these reading circles. Clearly they're hitting for a lot of readers (books like Winter's Orbit and A Memory Called Empire, as more examples), but they are such solid misses for me, and it's frustrating to feel like I'm seeing the threads of how a genre I grew up with is going to have less and less to interest me. So I don't despair for it in a general sense, but I do despair for it in the sense of "a genre that actually has books I want to read and will think are good." and that's really sad to me, especially because, well. it's annoying to see something you think sucked get praised to the skies, while other books you think are better get ignored. (to clarify, I don't think The Tainted Cup is an example of a book that's getting ignored by the Western queer spec-fic-o-verse. it's gotten a ton of positive, and well-deserved, press. But these are the same circles that regularly look down on the East Asian BL I favor, turning their noses up at it as ~fetishization~ and meanwhile Meng Xi Shi is out here writing politics so far beyond what a book like The Raven Scholar manages...)

anyway. manga.

• 10 Dance vol. 8 by Inouesatoh: I have waited almost 2 years for this, my hold came through this morning, I finished reading it within 30 minutes of waking up. Fuck but that was so so so so worth the wait. (vol. 7 ended on a brutal cliffhanger.)
• Fated NOT to Meet vol. 2 by Ei Eijou: I'll own I went into vol. 2 without any memories whatsoever of vol. 1, and it still read pretty well lmao.
• Kaiju No. 8: Relax vol. 1 and 2 by Kizuku Watanabe: silly spin-off one-shots for Kaiju No. 8. They were cute. I read them in reverse order (since there's no plot) and liked vol. 1 better than vol. 2.
• Syrup: A Yuri Anthology vol. 2: continues to be a delightfully toxic collection. The back blurb says it's dark and include taboo topics, and the reviews lambasting it are full of people going "omg this was so dark and the topics were so taboo." Some people just don't deserve evil GL. 
• Murderous Lewellyn's Candlelit Dinner vol. 2 by Sumnagi (re-read)
• Twittering Birds Never Fly vol. 2 and 3 by Kou Yoneda: the characters in this are intriguing but I find it really hard to follow - both in terms of keeping track of the plot and side characters, and also the jump between flashbacks and present day events.
• Yes, No, or Maybe? manga vol. 1 - 3 by Michi Ichiho and Yukimura: this read better than the anime... watched. It felt more dubcon and less non-con, which is a big plus.
• Marriage Toxin vol. 4 - 7 by Joumyaku and Mizuki Yoda: it's losing some of its charm already, which is sad.
• I Can't Say No to the Lonely Girl vol. 2 by Kashikaze: continues to be cute.
• Golden Kamuy vol. 4 by Satoru Noda: I must have been a mess when I read this, I hardly remember what happened lmao.
• Yona of the Dawn vol. 35: Mizuho Kusanagi: my library doesn't have vol. 36. wah.
• Saiyuki: Resurrected Edition vol. 4 by Kazuya Minekura: what a useless stopping point, and I don't have access to Reload atm. I realized well before the end that clearly the main story wouldn't get resolved within the base 9 volumes (consolidated into 4 vols in the version I read) but I didn't realize just how unresolved that'd actually mean.
• Sakamoto Days vol. 22 by Yuto Suzuki
• Dandadan vol. 16 by Yukinobu Tatsu
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime vol. 18 by Fuse

3. What will you read next?

Novels: I've decided that, for now, I'm saying "screw it" to my neatly-ordered-I'm-supposed-to-read-what's-next-on-the-top-of-the-pile TBR, and just impulse read. I've pulled out the My Husband and I Sleep in a Coffin duology by Wu Shui Bu Du, and I'm also eying the duology Twin Jades of Jiangdong by Fei Tian Ye Xiang.

Physical library loans: none!

Digital library loans: nothing is due in under a week, so eh, whatever I feel like. I accidentally stacked my Holds full of stuff again, even though I vowed to myself I wouldn't. In my defense, my libraries got a bunch of stuff that'd been unavailable/on my "notify me" list, so I was really eager to grab those now that I could. Of those, I think I'm most excited for I Want to Be Your Girl vol. 4, which is the last vol in the series and I really liked the middle 2 after being a little meh about the first. I also cannot *wait* for Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide vol. 7. The one I was absolutely most excited for was 10 Dance vol. 8 but that hold came through this morning and I have already read it lmao.

1. What are you currently reading?

nothing much tbh (just DMBJ, as always, and I've had a slow week on that) 

2. What have you recently finished reading?

• Demon Venerable Also Wants to Know vol. 1 by Cyan Wings: still love this one
• Punch Drunk Love by Moscareto: modern BL. got vol. 1 from Libby, ended up mainlining/pirating the entire webtoon.  It's not high entertainment and I wish people were nicer to Seon-woo about his quirkiness and taste but I still overall enjoyed this.
• Saiyuki vol. 2 by Kazuya Minekura: yeah I'm starting to see why this made all the then-girlies (now mostly not girlies) feral circa 2001.
• Golden Kamuy vol. 2 and 3 by Satoru Noda: this is so good
• The Man I Picked up by C. J. Michalski: this would have been better if all the short stories were set in the bar. The other short stories were weird.
• Happy Crappy Life vol. 1 by Hanada: an extremely rare DNF from me. I think trying to sell me on "slapstick comedy" when there's a huge plot line about one of the character's rape trauma being belittled, made fun of, ignored, and "well you like anal don't you," and the one half of the ship even forced the other half to apologize to his rapist. It is uh. well it sure is something. Something not even a little bit for me. Manga volumes read fast enough that I usually try to finish at least one volume even of series I intend to drop but uh. nope nope nopity nope.
• Just Like Mona Lisa vol. 7 by Tsumuji Yoshimura
• Marriage Toxin vol. 3 by Joumyaku and Mizuki Yoda
• Yona of the Dawn vol. 34 by Mizuho Kusanagi

3. What will you read next?

Novels: I've really not been feeling well, so I haven't started The Raven Scholar yet, but I really need to.

Graphic Novels (physical from the library): I Wanna Be Your Girl vol. 2 and 3 by Umi Takase

Graphic Novels (digital from Libby): I have a few things due in less than a week: I Can't Say No to the Lonely Girl vol. 1 by Kashikaze, Happy of the End vol. 1 by Ogretsu Tanaka, and Twitter Birds Never Fly vol. 2 by Kou Yoneda.

ugggh I had a truly overwhelming number of Libby holds come in over a really short period of time and hardly got any reading done (by my standards) because I've been so fucking busy. 

1. What are you currently reading?

• Twittering Birds Never Fly vol. 1 by Kou Yoneda: a BL manga that shouldn't actually have taken me two days but that's life right now I guess. It's suitably toxic and angsty but there are some weird jumps, sometimes it feels like pages are missing, that's how abruptly the scene will change.

I didn't make any progress on Paper Girls but I'm gonna try to finish it today. I'm still plugging away at DMBJ, but I realized it's 20 pages longer than I thought it was which means I won't finish it this month and that took the wind out of my sails a little. I'll still finish it next month, but. 

2. What have you recently finished reading?

• Lout of Count's Family vol. 8 by Yu Ryeo-Han: we finally started getting Kim Roksu backstory yaaaaaas
• In the Twilight of Our Adolescence by Waka Hayashi: modern BL with a pre-relationship GL secondary story. I liked this both more and less than I expected, more because I was kinda worried about the youth of the characters but it was actually pretty sweet and quite well written, less because it was actually three short stories in one volume and the last didn't feel like it went with the other two at all (it was still good! just incongruous).
• Marriagetoxin vol. 2 by Joumyaku and Mizuki Yoda: ...my hold on vol. 2 came in before my hold on vol. 1  I actually think I like the anime better, idk, something about Gero feels more charming when you can hear his awkwardness oozing off the animation. But I still liked it.
• Just Like Mona Lisa vol. 6: still waiting to really like this series and it's still not happening, but apparently there are only two more volumes of the main story (then two volumes of extras) so I guess I'll stick it out.

yep, that's it.

3. What will you read next?

Apparently, a fuckton of things on Libby, cause I have 15 loans right now, siiiiigh. Taproot by Keezy Young is definitely next. For the physical library loans I really really need to finish Paper Girls so I'm not looking past that. 

tbh I doubt I'll start a new novel until I pare these piles down.

okay, so I set myself a goal this week to get through all of my oldest (physical) library borrows and I almost pulled it off (in my defense, the one that's left is like 700 pages long  I'm gonna try to get through it today but idk, it's long.) Anyway. 

1. What are you currently reading?

• Love Between Fairy and Devil vol. 2 by Jiu Lu Fei Xiang: I enjoyed vol. 1 more than I expected to but I'm also finding I have very little oomph for reading the second so idk 
• 盗墓笔记 vol. 2 by 南派三叔: 70% done! at the rate I'm currently reading I could theoretically be done by the end of June, which means it'll have taken me 6 months to read one (1) 240 page book in Chinese.  but hey, I'm reading it! and I'm definitely getting faster, I mean, at my original pace I'd not have finished until the end of August. Today I got to a major plot twist that I'd completely forgotten from when I read it in English 5ish years ago, so that was interesting.

2. What have you recently finished reading?

• Love Between Fairy and Devil by vol. 1 by Jiu Lu Fei Xiang: I had to daytrip via Amtrak down to New York City on Saturday, so I figured might as well bring a couple books. I wasn't sure how much reading I'd do but I managed to finish vol. 1 and start vol. 2. This is extremely different from what I've seen of the c-drama (tho I've only seen maybe 5 episodes?) and was a lot funnier than I expected. I found Xiao Lanhua extremely annoying in the show, and it's odd, cause she's not significantly different here but it was less irritating, maybe because I didn't have to actually hear any of it in her whiny voice.
• Thief of the Heights by Son M. and Robin Yao: interesting book about a SWANA-based fantasy/sci-fi world. mlm, with other background queerness. Heavy on disability themes (the basic concept is that poor people get an illness that the only way to combat it is to amputate the effected body part). Would have rated it higher if the ending hadn't felt so rushed and simplistic. It's hard to believe in one-shot (not literal) magic solutions to huge systemic problems.
• Dawning vol. 3 by Ice: done with the series! Much like the non-extras part of the last volume, once the angst extra was done most of the rest were them having so much sex. 
• DC Pride: To the Farthest Reaches: an anthology of short comics about queer DC characters. Extremely inconsistent, even more so than collections like this usually are, but there were a few I really liked, especially the first and the last.
• Bone Broth by Alex Taylor: an extremely "what the fuck did I just read" kind of book, about a young trans man who starts working at a ramen restaurant, loosely inspired by the actual trans man author's actual experiences at an actual ramen restaurant. I didn't feel like the art style did it any favors.
• Yona of the Dawn vol. 32 by Mizuho Kusanagi
• A Song For You and I by K. O'Neill: this was really sweet and about what I'd expect from K. O'Neill at this point. Fantasy m/m with a trans youth (the characters are probably around 13? it's a middle grade book.)
• Kagurabachi vol. 2 by Takeru Hokazono: continues to be interesting, if pretty standard, shounen fare.
• Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen vol. 2 by Hiromi Sato and Kamome Shirahama
• This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki and Nicole Goux: this was good until the pacing kinda fell of a cliff near the end. This is such a common issue with these YA graphic novels I read and I wish I could figure out why.

3. What will you read next?

Novels: After the War, the Play is still next on my pile; I didn't bring it on Amtrak cause I didn't think it'd be long enough, which was probably accurate given how much I read, and I didn't want to rely on my phone for that much of the day cause the battery wouldn't have made it. I'm traveling this weekend, tho, and don't want to have to bring a lot of different books, so tbh I may bump it again and bring something a little chonkier, which if I do, will probably be the duology My Husband and I Sleep in a Coffin by Wu Shui Bu Du.

Graphic Novels (physical from the library): Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, and Matt Wilson.

Graphic Novels (digital from Libby): Syrup: A Yuri Anthology vol. 1 is due in like 3 days so I gotta read that. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime vol. 16 by Fuse is also due in less than a week.

1. What are you currently reading?

• Dawning vol. 2 by ICE: enjoying this vaguely toxic BL danmei. When I saw reviewers say it has Wangxian vibes (despite being modern) I'll admit I was little "people compare to the one danmei they've read, huh" but no it actually does kinda have Wangxian vibes, tho Li Luo is much more self-aware about his feelings than Wei Wuxian ever could dream of being. Both these idiots need to use their words.
• still picking away at DMBJ vol. 2, of course.
• no progress on CMoS 18. I've just been exhausted.

2. What have you recently finished reading?

• Dawning vol. 1 by ICE
• Do You Really Only Want a Meal? vol. 1 and 2 by Yasu Tadano: kinda flat modern BL about a guy dating his boss's son. Nothing bad happens at all, which is often okay but here it just felt one note, and also I just at no point could figure out what the boss's son liked about the guy. He just kinda. Decided he'd like him. And that was that.
• Gachiakuta vol. 4 by Kei Urana: I don't know what it is about the art style, pacing, and writing that makes me feel like I never have any damn idea what's going on in this manga.
• A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol. 10 by Misaki
• Witch Hat Atelier vol. 14 by Kamome Shirahama: oh man this volume was so good.
• Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen vol. 1 by Kamome Shirahama and Hiromi Sato: I'll own it was probably unfair of me to read this seeing as how I didn't expect to like it and it was exactly how I expected it to be. For all that, I actually liked it better than I usually like stuff like this, which isn't saying much, but I'm at least gonna read another vol.

3. What will you read next?

Novels: Dawning, vol. 3, which is the last volume. After I finish that I need to buckle down on...

Graphic novels (physical): still Rebis: Born and Reborn by Carlotta Dicataldo and Irene Marchesini. I've got a really big library pile from the library and I've got to read and return them, it's not fair to hoard this many new queer graphic novel releases.

Graphic novels (digital): Yuri Espoir vol. 4 is due in 5 days, so I guess that.

1. What are you currently reading?

• Chicago Manual of Style 18th Ed.: I'm participating in an online conference this week, and one aspect of it was setting a personal goal, and so I opted for this one, which I've been procrastinating. I wanted to really dig in and read the parts related to the work I do, cause if there's stuff I'm doing wrong that I think I'm doing right, I won't think to check it normally. So far, I'm still in the "how to format and publish things" sections and feeling pretty validated lmao. (it's over 1100 pages long, I've read most of the first 100, only skipping some parts about journal formatting that is irrelevant to me.)
• 盗墓笔记 vol. 2 by 南派三叔: pick, pick, picking away

2. What have you recently finished reading?

• Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell: I was absolutely adoring this until the last 100 pages or so, when things went off the rails for me. Oh well. It was still a decent book.
• Kisses That Taste Like Lies vol. 1 - 3 by Waka Sagami: this has absolutely terrible reviews on Storygraph and I have no idea why, I think it's a pretty good toxic yaoi con man x his mark, and much less toxic than it could be considering how quickly the mark finds out and how thoroughly the mark decides he doesn't care and wants whatever he can get.
• Pizza Witch by Stef Purenins and Sarah Graley: this was very cute but would have been better if there'd been any indication before the last page that it's not the entire story.
• Yuri Espoir vol. 3 by Mai Naoi: some of the vibes related to her forced fiance trouble me, but then, she's the main character, not him, so I guess it can't be helped.
• A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation manga vol. 6 by Misaki: this vol felt more episodic than the others have, which made it less interesting to me, but I'm still enjoying it overall and it still screams BL off the page despite all being technically platonics.
• That Time I Got Recinarnated as a Slime manga vol. 12 by Taiki Kawakami: oh, I don't remember THAT happening in the anime. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention??? I should go back and check lmao.

For work, I also finished a read-through of my own novel, A Glimmer of Hope, that I started in January. With it cleaned up, we can move on to re-issuing it. I sold a few copies during our most recent Kickstarter so getting the new version done became a pretty high priority. 

3. What will you read next?

Novels: Dawning by Ice, a modern danmei in three volumes. I'd have started already if not for the CMoS reading this week.

Physical Graphic Novels (from the library): Lovely Recipe by Myra Rose Nino is next on my pile.

E-Book Graphic Novels (from Libby): Just Like Mona Lisa vol. 4 by Tsumiji Yoshimura and Yona of the Dawn vol. 29 by Mizuho Kusanagi are both due before next Wednesday, and Gachiakuta vol. 4 by Kei Urana and Hideyoshi Ando is due in 8 days, so I expect to read those this week, but tbh I'll probably read Witch Hat Aterlier vol. 14 by Kamome Shirahama first because I'm just so excited to have finally gotten my hands on it, lol.

I actually wrote this yesterday, but I was traveling and only on mobile so it got posted to the Discord I do reading stuff in but no where else. So, crossposting today, even tho it's already inaccurate (I've finished two of my current reads since when I wrote this).

1. What are you currently reading?

• The Beauty's Blade by Feng Ren Zuo Shu: I have only 80 pages left and I still have no idea why the ml would even tolerate the mc, much less love her. The jianghu chaos is kinda fun, at least.
• Yona of the Dawn vol 28 by Mizuho Kusanagi
• Yellow omnibus 1 by Makoto Tateno: I read the first volume of this in lile 2006 and was always curious what happened, so I'm finally reading the whole thing on Libby. Very easy to forget with 20+ years distance how much rapey stuff and weird underage stuff was in ancient yaoi lmao. And this was one I liked! Not near as bad as the ones that led me to stop reading the whole genre for a long time.

2. What have you recently finish reading?

• Gachiakuta vol. 3 by Kei Urana
• Dandadan vol. 14 by Yukinobu Tatsu
• A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol. 4 by Misaki: this really is Lout of Count's Family a little to the left and much gayer and tbh I'm here for it.
• Real-Time Fever by Taberu Kasumi: weird blackmail mlm explicit thing about two students, one of whom is a camboy sort of. It was meh.
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime manga vol. 11 by Fuse
• I've Seen it All vol. 1 and 2 by Shouko Takaku: speaking of old yaoi, this was a surprisingly fun couple books (there's at least one more but it's not on Libby) about a doctor who is an expert on penile health and surgery and the rando be runs into and is like "I can tell by his appearance that his penis is perfect and I must have him." It's crack adjacent but idk it made me smile.
• Yona of the Dawn vol. 25 to 27 by Mizuho Kusanagi
• Dinosaur Sanctuary vol. 7 by Itaru Kinoshita
• Sakamoto Days vol. 21 by Yuto Suzuki

3. What will you read next?

Novels: my hold on the next volume of Apothecary Diaries came through so probably that, then Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell is still next.

Graphic novels from the (physical) library: still Daybreak vol. 2 by Moosopp.

Graphic novels from the (digital) library: Just Like Mona Lisa vol. 3 is the only one due imminently.

1. What are you currently reading?

• The Beauty's Blade by Feng Ren Zuo Shu: I wasn't expecting much, tbh, after reading friends' reactions to this book, and... yeah. It's kinda all over the place? New elements and plot bits just kinda appear mid-scene in a way that's making it really hard for me to keep track of what's actually going on. 
• Just Like Mona Lisa vol. 2 by Tsumuji Yoshimura
• 盗墓笔记 vol. 2 by 南派三叔: obviously I'm still picking away at this, but I did want to celebrate that I'm now 33% done! which is 89 pages. and I've caught up and overtaken my "one page a day" rate that I fell behind on in January and February. At this rate, I'll be done by, uh. September. 

2. What have you recently finished reading?

• Don't You Like Me vol. 2 by Lv Tian Yi: the extras were pretty good! all in all I liked this duology, definitely enjoyed vol. 2 better than vol. 1. One of the longer extras did leave some threads dangling loose in a way that was kinda weird but oh well.
• Gaysians by Mike Curato: oh, this was so so so good. Story set in the mid 00s on the West Coast about a group of Asian gay men (one of whom turns out to be an Asian trans woman) and their relationships, found family, friendships, and personal challenges, with a heavy dose of the racism and bigotry and transphobia they face. Ultimate W for found family supporting each other.
• Dandadan vol. 13 by Yukinobu Tatsu
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime vol. 10 by Fuse
• A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation manga vol. 1 to 3 by Misaki: technically, this isn't a BL. technically. Not technically, my guy Lizel totally out here gathering an all-male harem.
• Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation vol. 13 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu: aaaaand done.
• I Wanna Love You, Kiss You, Bite You by Sakana Tojou: omegaverse modern setting BL. Very much plot? what plot?
• Gachiakuta vol. 2 by Kei Urana: another "it took me most of the volume to remember what was going on in vol. 1" read 
• Wild Beast Forest House vol. 3 by Inma R.: this was  the final volume of this manga, and I really liked it. A trilogy I'm considering adding to my "to buy" list.
• Les Normaux vol. 2 by S. Al Sabado and Janine Janssen: once I remembered what was going on, I motored through this. Really good addition. Looking forward to vol. 3.
• Kase-San and Yamada vol. 4 (Kase-san and... vol. 9) by Hiromi Takashima: one of the better volumes imo

3. What will you read next?

Novels: next on my pile is Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell. It's for reading club. I'm like 6 weeks late. Oops. After that are the three volumes of Dawning, a danmei by ICE.

Physical Graphic Novels (from the library): Motherlover by Lindsay Ishihiro is next on my pile.

Digital Graphic Novels (on Libby): other than my current Libby read (Just Like Mona Lisa vol. 2), the only other one I've got due within the next week is Yuri Espoir vol. 2 by Mai Naoi.

1. What are you currently reading?

• The Apothecary Diaries light novel vol. 4 by Natsu Hyuuga: this is due on Libby in like 3 days so I gotta read like the wind 
• 盗墓笔记 vol. 2 by 南派三叔: I'm noticing I'm (finally) getting a bit faster, and I feel like I'm understanding most of it. I might yet be able to catch up to my "1 page a day" plan (I should be at page 70; I'm actually on page 66. so close!)

2. What have you recently finished reading?

• Lout of Count's Family vol. 7 by Yu Ryeo-Han: this volume was mostly scheming, so had less action than the previous one, but yum, that delicious Cale whump. I love how everyone around him is now very obviously like, "oh. so he's full of shit. well then we'll just have to take matters into our own hands."  Like, they were already like that but now it's been dialed up to 11.
• Love and Gravity by Ari North: this was fine, but it touched on some heavy stuff (like eating disorders) and then like. didn't actually engage with them at all? It was weird.
• SHWD episode 3 by sono.N: this moved on from the previous two main characters to focus on two new people and still had all the same weirdness as the other three in terms of plot jumps and stuff... even tho there's only one episode left I decided I don't care enough to bother.
• Imitation Play by Ann Homare: I rather liked this single-volume smutty modern BL.
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime vol. 9 by Fuse
• Just Like Mona Lisa vol. 1 by Tsumuji Yoshimura: interesting start to a high school story set in a world where people pick gender and the main character has opted out of that. The reviews are full of people who make me despair for reading comprehension, though, they're all like, "ugh this was so awful for reproducing the same gender essentialism as the real world has" and like THIS IS VOLUME 1 and if you can't see that criticizing that essentialism is clearly going to be the entire point then why did you even pick this book up in the first place uggggh why. "This long series didn't disassemble the thing it's critiquing in volume 1 so it failed" wut.
• The Little Bird Sleeps by the Sea by Yuu Minaduki: I don't like kidfic and had low expectations for this modern BL AU but it was surprisingly sweet.
• A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow vol. 6 by Makoto Hagino: I'm dropping this series. This entire volume was zero communication, pointless jealousy. Whyyyyy do so many HS GL manga titles lean in on jealousy this is annoying and exhausting.

3. What will you read next?

Novels: Don't You Like Me vol. 2 by Lv Tian Yi

Graphic Novels (physical): I really need to knuckle down on these books from the library. Sleepless Domain vol. 1 by Oscar Vega and Mary Cagle is still next, oops.

Graphic Novels (Libby): I got through all of last week's "oh no, this is due imminently" titles but now I have new ones: Yuri Espoir vol. 1 by Mai Naoi and How Do We Relationship? vol. 3 by Tamifull.

In general, I'm trying to reduce the number of things I have in loan and lean more into a "I borrow what I feel like reading that day" model, but I have holds and those keep coming through and messing up my intention to change. Oops? You'd think this would lead me to stop putting holds on things, and yet... (but genuinely I do have fewer holds than I have had in the past...)

1. What are you currently reading?

• Don't You Like Me vol. 1 by Lv Tian Yi: it's fine but it's on hold because...
• The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter vol. 3 by Yatsuki Wakatsu: yeah, volume 3. I might be mainlining this light novel juuuuust a little. 
• 盗墓笔记 vol. 2 by 南派三叔

2. What have you recently finished reading?

• Into the Split by Tris Lawrence: I don't usually count work reading for these but I just reread the entire novel in 3 days to do my final "clean-up" edit and damn it, I'm counting that. (reread)
• The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter vol. 1 and 2 by Yatsuki Wakatsu: yeah I read two novels in four days, which is a lot for me. Vol. 1 is already covered by what I'd seen of the anime, vol. 2 focuses on the church stuff, and there's nothing deep going on here but, much like the anime, I'm just enjoying it. It's like eating candy, if by candy we mean mlm fuck-or-die fantasy isekai.
• Apple and Honey vol. 1 by Hideyoshico: I'd accidentally already read vol. 2 a while ago and I liked it so here we are. It was fine, I liked the parts about the same characters, the side story was okay but more bittersweet than I was in the mood for.
• Vampeerz vol. 1 by Akili: wlw with an interesting premise, but a lot's unanswered in this volume, and idk, the vibes felt off but I can't put my finger on why.
• My New Boss is Goofy vol. 1 by Dan Ichikawa: I'd heard people talk about this as BL-adjacent so I wanted to check it out. I'd also seen a chunk of the anime (including everything in this vol. 1). And yeah, it's cute, with definite BL vibes without actually being BL.
• The Way of the Househusband vol. 15 by Kousuke Oono
• Kiss the Abyss by Mu Huo Ran: I wanted to reread this so I mainlined the entire series while on the way home from visiting my mom in NYC (we took the train home) (reread)
• Moriarty the Patriot vol. 1 - 3 by Ryosuke Takeuchi: so while I was in NYC, mom decided to go with me to Kinokuniya, and she spotted this on the shelf, heard I'd liked it, and decided she wanted to read it, so she bought the first three volumes. It's been 2 years since I read them, so I reread 'um real quick before we left. It's really interesting to reread for me, because I really didn't like them the first time and was very skeptical, I didn't warm to the series until like vol. 5 or 6. But this time I loved them, now that I know what's going on. (reread)
• Murderous Lewellyn's Candelit Dinner vol. 1 - 6 by Sumnagi: mom gave me a budget of $100 at Kinokuniya. I spent half of it on the first three volumes of this, promptly reread them, then finished the rest of the series. (reread)
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime vol. 8 by Fuse

3. What will you read next?

Novels: I got the next volume of Apothecary Diaries on Libby, so that'll be in the mix somewhere, otherwise mostly finishing my reads-in-progress.

Graphic Novels (Physical): I still haven't read any more of my borrows from the library, oops.

Graphic Novels (Libby): I did give up on Firefly Wedding, I just couldn't muster the interest to read the second volume. Stuff due before next Wednesday is next - Northranger by Rey Terciero and How Do We Relationship? volume 2 by Tamifull