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curiouslykatt's reviews
1041 reviews
A Sign of Affection, Omnibus 1 (Vol. 1-3) by suu Morishita
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
By far the sweetest, most wholesome manga I’ve read in awhile. I refuse to accept anyone can read this without kicking their feet, giggling and just having the warm fuzzy feelings.
Yuki and Itsuomi are both college kids, she’s deaf and he’s a multi-lingual world traveller. They meet by chance when they’re on the metro, a tourist asks Yuki for directions and she can’t communicate with the tourist. Itsuomi to the rescue to translate and get the tourist the directions he needs. Itsuomi is keen to learn new languages and about other ways of life, so naturally he is drawn to Yuki and wants to learn Japanese sign language and more importantly learn about her.
Not only does Itsuomi want to learn sign language to be able to communicate with Yuki, he also doesn’t infantilize her for being deaf and needing him to swoop in control her life.
This manga is over the top sweet and does have some slow moments (hey, it’s real life material some days are dull) but overall a very cute opening set and I can’t wait to read the next in the series. A lovely slice of life read when you just want everyone to be happy and in love.
Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up With the Universe by Ken Krimstein
informative
medium-paced
4.0
“Einstein, you have to choose. Are you going to live in his universe? Or yours?”
Time is a funny thing isn’t it? Some things feel so long ago while actually being very recent, relatively speaking.
I mean I can do the math, and rationally speaking I can conceptualize that two geniuses (in their own rights) existed in the same space and time. But on the other hand I am unable to grasp that two geniuses lived parallel lives.
Prague. 1911-1912. Einstein and Kafka are living their lives and both trying to answer the most profound questions both searching for new ideas. New truths. Einstein using this time to flesh out his theory of general relativity. Kafka using his time to write his first piece “the Judgment” and carving out what it means to be human.
There are points in this the science gets too dizzying for me, but there’s a beauty. While I may not be able to grasp all of Einstein’s ideas, he was challenging the prevailing theories that have stood for thousands of years. He was having to accept a reality he was not familiar with, and would ultimately change his world. Once you know the new, you may be the same person from a DNA perspective, but in terms of cognition, the old you ceases to exist. You are and you aren’t all at the same time.
Ultimately a worthwhile graphic novel you can finish in one sitting. There’s wit thrown in and you get to meet some side characters including Einstein’s wife and his intellectual nemesis Max Abraham, all in accompanying watercolour fluid imagery.
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
-But that was the thing about her. She may have been a con artist but the con was always honest. -
Fiction masquerading as fact, and it’s perfect.
Set in a dystopian America, a widow attempts to reconcile her grief by composing the biography of her recently deceased wife, X. X was an eccentric, and enigmatic shape shifter of an artist. CM soon discovers as she meets more and more people who knew her wife, no one truly knew X but they also felt they entirely understood her. X lived a thousand lives before being CM’s wife, not one life being the same or carried forward. There is something so alluring of a chameleon and someone who over the years and months morphs into someone else entirely.
Lacey’s use of interviews, footnotes, bibliographies, and photos create an immersive experience that this biography could in fact be real, all while we are aware it is entirely fictitious. Which lends itself beautifully to try and discover, who was the artist known as X?
“I did not know her. I did not know who she was, and I do not know anything of that woman, though I did love her - on that point I refuse to concede.”