Manga are books too, so I’d say so. 
2 Likes
I believe the usual word for this is “novel”.
1 Like
I wouldn’t call fiction/non-fiction story collections a “novel” (at least to me that implies a longer fictional narrative), and that’s what 5 out of 6 non-manga books this club has read are.
1 Like
Yeah, this club doesn’t tend to nominate children’s novels these days anyways.
Maybe “prose”, then?
1 Like
I feel like using “non-manga book” might be less elegant, but in that instance is the easiest to understand. (I had to look up what “prose” means exactly.)
2 Likes
A Sign of Affection
Natively: Level 21
Summary
Yuki Itose is a hearing-impaired university student whose world has been shrouded with silence since birth. She has lived in the same place her whole life, and rarely interacts with others save for her best friend, Rin Fujishiro. During her commute one day, she meets the silver-haired and multilingual Itsuomi Nagi, a mutual friend of Rin. Unlike most, Itsuomi is unwavering when he learns of Yuki’s impairment; this, along with his experiences abroad, fascinates and touches her. After they part, her fondness of him starts to grow. A new world begins to open for both Yuki and Itsuomi as they learn about each other’s different lives.
Availability
Physical: Honto | Rakuten | CD Japan | Amazon US | Amazon JP | Kinokuniya JP
Digital: eBook Japan | BookWalker | Amazon Kindle JP
Personal Opinion
This cute romance story really stands out, with a fun adult cast and a well-researched perspective on both a disability and on language learning. While sign language is a main topic, there’s also a lot of approachable Japanese as the characters learn to communicate with each other through lip reading and writing. I’d say the simple language puts this at around the right level for this club.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Focus on simple, everyday language, seen in a variety of contexts
- Large font and low text density, with full furigana (much of the time)
- Story moves forward chapter by chapter
- Great art
- Has a recent popular anime adaptation
Cons
- The messages on screens, whiteboards, etc. don’t have furigana. These happen somewhat regularly but are generally brief and simple, so hopefully not too huge of an obstacle.
- The text for lip-read dialogue is slightly harder to read, with a lighter font color and on rare occasion, a garbled character or two when the speech isn’t understood. This difficulty is intentional, since lip reading is also inexact.
Pictures
17 Likes
薫る花は凛と咲く - The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity
Summary
Chidori High is a boys’ school that takes in the dregs of society with the lowest grades. Next door stands Kikyo Girls’ High, where the wealthy, high-class families send their precious daughters. Chidori second-year Rintaro, who has a fierce face but a gentle heart, is helping at his family’s patisserie when he meets a girl named Kaoruko. The two hit it off right away…but this blissful peace is quickly disturbed when Rintaro discovers that Kaoruko is actually a student at Kikyo. Worse, she doesn’t seem to realize what a huge problem this really is! Will these two be able to forge a path for themselves, and sidestep the traps (metaphorical and literal) laid by their classmates?
Availability
Physical: Amazon JP / CD Japan / Kinokuniya
Digital: Bookwalker / Rakuten / Kindle JP
Natively Level: 20
Personal Opinion
The plot is exactly the kind of stuff I gush over. I read to the end of Bookwalker’s preview and intend to finish eventually, but it does seem like it’s at the upper limit for this club: there weren’t many pages with no text, and there’s a good amount of super casual speech. But the mcs are both precious and cute, plus there’s an anime coming next year so it must be pretty popular.
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- High school setting, vocab should be easy
- Hardly any handwritten text, in the 31 page preview I counted five pages, and four of those were just sound effects
- Anime hype train
Cons
- Art is simplistic and nothing special
- We may be getting tired of romance by now
Pictures
11 Likes
I’ve been following this one, it’s super wholesome and Kaoruko is just adorable
Would recommend
1 Like
Yeah when she was introduced I was in awe at how cute she is!
1 Like
The art also gets better and more detailed as the manga goes on, with very detailed closeups of Kaoruko smiling 
1 Like
If you’re interested in trying out something a little harder than the ABBC, then the BBC is now voting for its next book:
6 Likes
~really~ hoping ルックバック wins this poll even though I think it’s a slim chance. I’ve had the manga on my shelf for months and just saw the movie and loved it!!
thank you for this!
I’ll be posting the poll tomorrow, so if anyone has some last minute nominations feel free to sneak them in.
3 Likes
Welp, the local japanese bookstore has none of the currently leading books. But who knows which one will win in the end ?
1 Like
Voting time, what a happy time!
Calling all voters!
Cast your ballot below for the next club pick! You will have 5 votes which you can change until the poll closes on 2024-11-05T18:00:00Z
The start date for the next pick is tentatively December 14th, which would be one week after the end of the current club.
List of Nominees
Books
| Book Title | Description | Natively |
|---|---|---|
| 日本の昔ばなし | Japanese Folk Tales Collection Vol 1 (Issun-boshi and other stories) | L?? |
| もしかしたら名探偵 | Detective Milky Sugiyama | L16 |
| １０分で読めるこわい話1年生 | 10 minute reader - Scary stories (1st grade reader) | L16? |
Manga
| Manga Title | Description | Natively |
|---|---|---|
| こばと | Kobato | L20? |
| あしょんでよッ ~うちの犬ログ | Let’s Plaaay - Our Dog, Log | L13 |
| 藤本タツキ短編集 17-21 | Fujimoto Tatsuki Short Story Collection 17-21 | L23 |
| ふだつきのキョーコちゃん | Fudatsuki no Kyoko-chan | L18 |
| ギャルと恐竜 | Gal & Dino | L18 |
| 今日から始める幼なじみ | Will you be my childhood friend? | L17 |
| ネトゲの嫁が人気アイドルだった | My wife in an online game is a popular idol | L19? |
| 花野井くんと恋の病 | A Condition Called Love | L20 |
| 桜井さんは気づいてほしい | Sakurai-san wants to be noticed! | L15 |
| ドラえもん | Doraemon | L22 |
| 絶対に風呂に入りたくない彼女VS絶対に風呂に入れたい彼氏 | Girlfriend who never wants to take a bath vs. boyfriend who definitely wants to put her into the bath | L17 |
| あしたは土曜日 春・夏 | Tomorrow is Saturday | L19 |
| ゆびさきと恋々 | A Sign of Affection | L21 |
| 薫る花は凛と咲く | The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Difficulty | L20 |
Book poll 15
- Japanese Folk Tales Collection Vol 1 (Issun-boshi and other stories)
- Detective Milky Sugiyama
- 10 minute reader - Scary stories (1st grade reader)
- Kobato
- Let’s Plaaay - Our Dog, Log
- Fujimoto Tatsuki Short Story Collection 17-21
- Fudatsuki no Kyoko-chan
- Gal & Dino
- Will you be my childhood friend?
- My wife in an online game is a popular idol
- A Condition Called Love
- Sakurai-san wants to be noticed!
- Doraemon
- Girlfriend who never wants to take a bath vs. boyfriend who definitely wants to put her into the bath
- Tomorrow is Saturday
- A Sign of Affection
- The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Difficulty
0
voters
9 Likes
You did this on purpose, didn’t you ಠ_ಠ
7 Likes
Just seemed like a good day for an election. For no reason.
No, I really didn’t mean to and I only noticed when I put in the closing date. Oops.
12 Likes
At least we can use this poll to ignore the much more stressful poll
8 Likes