LGBTQ+/GSRM Book Club! Starting Mid September

Japanese Language Reading
#1

Hi Guys!

I have one person interested and that’s all I need to push this forward! Welcome to the unofficial LGBTQ+/GSRM Book Club!

First Book: さびしすぎてレズ風俗に行きましたレポ

loneliness
My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness
Buy it on amazon.co.jp

I loved this book in english and think it will be great to read it in the original Japanese. It is a very honest take on coming to terms with anxiety and lesbianism is modern day Japan. I find the anxious closeted protagonist very relatable and I hope you do too! Well I hope you are well adjusted and able to express yourself freely, but if you can’t or ever couldn’t, I hope you find healing in this story.

**Trigger warning, She explores her sexuality at a sex hotel, but in my opinion this is not a sexual book at all. Most of the time she is in the hotel she is focusing on the panic attacks she is having. Not graphic to me, but I understand that some people view things differently than me.

**Trigger warning, deals with mental health, her experiences in the book support her to be healthier.

Get started reading!

Read by~
Chapter 1 9/27
Chapter 2 10/4
Chapter 3 10/11
Chapter 4 10/18
Chapter 5 10/25

Read along with this participant created vocabulary list, and feel free to add your own!
Vocab for さびしすぎてレズ風俗に行きましたレポ

Book Nominations:

I would also like to open up book nominations. I foresee that it might be a little more difficult finding native sources of wholesome LGBTQ+/GSRM content, so if you know any please share ASAP! (Edit: I’m happy to announce that we are actually drowning in nominations. Keep’em coming y’all.)

Guidelines

I would like to appeal to the widest range of readers.

  1. Keep the book short.
  2. Keep it beginner level or low intermediate if possible.
  3. Keep it safe for work please. I’d love to find content that is inclusive of queer voices, and not sexualizing of their bodies.

Book Schedule

Next Book: 不可解なぼくのすべてを

bokuno
ぼくのすべて Vocabulary List

Summary

Mogumo is a cute but lonely high school student who just wants a few loving friends. Fellow student Iwaoka Tetsu invites Mogumo to work at his family’s café for “cross-dressing boys,” but he makes an incorrect assumption: Mogumo is non-binary and doesn’t identify as a boy or a girl. However, Mogumo soon finds out that the café is run by LGBT+ folks of all stripes, all with their own reasons for congregating there. This touching manga explores gender, gender presentation, and sexuality from many different angles, including the ways people are pushed to conform in a world that doesn’t understand them…until the world begins to learn, one person at a time.

Read by~
Chapter 1 11/8
Chapter 2 11/15
Chapter 3 11/22
Chapter 4 11/29
Chapter 5 12/6
Chapter 6 12/13

Next Next Book: しまなみ誰そ彼 1

shimanami

Summary

Set in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, high school student Tasuku Kaname prepares to commit suicide after his classmates discover gay pornography on his phone. Before he is able to do so, he witnesses a person jump from a window, only to discover they were unharmed in the building where they jumped from. Tasuku discovers that the building is an open “drop-in center”, where he meets other people with various troubles and learns to accept his sexuality.

Read by~
Chapter 1 1/3
Chapter 2 1/10
Chapter 3 1/17
Chapter 4 1/24
Chapter 5 1/31

Check out this poll!

Poll will be open until October 1st…
First six recommendations:

不可解なぼくのすべてを
love my life
しまなみ誰そ彼
放浪息子 - I can’t find this in print.
やがて君になる
アフターアワーズ

Details on each book can be found under the poll post.

38 Likes
#2

I already nominated it for the beginner book club a while ago, but I’d say the manga 不可解な僕のすべてを definitely fits that description :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#3

Yay! I will check it out! I knew I could count on y’all!

What’s the synopsis?

2 Likes
#4

Japanese synopsis from the amazon page for the first volume of 不可解な僕のすべてを:

Summary

女子の制服を着て学校に通う高校生、もぐもはある日、カフェのアルバイトに誘われる。可愛い制服を着て働ける仕事に、最初は喜ぶもぐもだったが、このカフェが『男の娘カフェ』であることを知って…。キュートな絵柄でイラストレーターとしても活躍中の粉山カタが挑む、男の娘カフェで働く仲間たちの青春群像劇‼

And here’s the official English synopsis for the first volume(It’s not exactly the same as the Japanese one, but if anything the English synopsis is actually a bit more informative than the Japanese one):

Summary

Mogumo is a cute but lonely high school student who just wants a few loving friends. Fellow student Iwaoka Tetsu invites Mogumo to work at his family’s café for “cross-dressing boys,” but he makes an incorrect assumption: Mogumo is non-binary and doesn’t identify as a boy or a girl. However, Mogumo soon finds out that the café is run by LGBT+ folks of all stripes, all with their own reasons for congregating there. This touching manga explores gender, gender presentation, and sexuality from many different angles, including the ways people are pushed to conform in a world that doesn’t understand them…until the world begins to learn, one person at a time.

And aside from the synopsis,

there is also a preview of the first two chapters(in Japanese ) on pixiv :)

1: https://comic.pixiv.net/viewer/stories/48390
2: https://comic.pixiv.net/viewer/stories/48391

5 Likes
#5

I bought that one in English. The quires were bound out of order, making it a bit of a puzzling read at times. I haven’t gotten around to going back to the bookshop to get a new copy.

Not… planning on reading it in Japanese. Just commenting. :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
#6

I’d recommend all the mangas by Ebine Yamaji. The mangaka is a lesbian herself and her work is very good. She’s quite well known in France - especially in the LGBTQ+ community - as several of her mangas have been translated here.
I enjoyed a lot “Love my Life”, “Indigo Blue”, “Sweet Lovin’ Baby”, “Free Soul”…
Definitely one of my favourites…

7 Likes
#7

That sounds lovely!

2 Likes
#8

If you HAD to pick and all time favorite?

1 Like
#9

WELCOME, no problem lol.

1 Like
#10

They are all very short one volume mangas. “Sweet Lovin’ Baby” is very charming, I’ll say…

3 Likes
#11

Perfect. I’ll look that one up first!

1 Like
#12

Or maybe “Love My Life” which is less sad…

1 Like
#13

Oh, there’s also “Our Dreams at Dusk” by Yuhki Kamatani

3 Likes
#14

I was going to say the name sounded familiar, but it’s even the same manga, lol.

Shimanami Tasogare.

4 Likes
#15

What do you like about that one?

1 Like
#16

This thread is mostly just recommendations at the moment and I’m living for it. I like the cover of this one!

1 Like
#17

I read and really enjoyed 放浪息子 and やがて君になる. Both have some heavy topics (e.g. bullying, loss), but overall I think they classify as “wholesome”. I read a couple other random manga volumes, but none of the others were particularly good.

8 Likes
#18

The only problem you might have with a themed book club is that the difficulty level may be unclear. Will you try to match the beginner book club by reading about one chapter per week?

3 Likes
#19

I totally agree with you. I was worried about that specifically when it comes to vocab. I think the nominator will have to give a estimated difficulty level. Yes I would like to set an easy pace, and try to keep it as beginner friendly as possible. It might end up being more like intermediate… The subject matter is going to relegate most of them to intermediate level.

So shorter stories with longer chapter times?

2 Likes
#20

At a certain point that’s not going to be a problem outside of fantasy/sci-fi and similarly complex genres. It really becomes more about pace I think. When I was a beginner, one chapter a week was a lot and I asked a lot of questions. Now as an intermediate reader, I can easily read multiple chapters a day. So to keep it at a beginner level I’d recommend to keep it as slice of life as possible and about one chapter a week.

2 Likes