#Hiromi Goto

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Preliminary Round

Book summaries below:

Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto (illustrated by Ann Xu)

Poet and novelist Hiromi Goto effortlessly blends wry, observational slice-of-life literary fiction with poetic magical realism in the tender and surprising graphic novel Shadow Life , with haunting art from debut artist Ann Xu.

When Kumiko’s well-meaning adult daughters place her in an assisted living home, the seventy-six-year-old widow gives it a try, but it’s not where she wants to be. She goes on the lam and finds a cozy bachelor apartment, keeping the location secret even while communicating online with her eldest daughter. Kumiko revels in the small, daily decorating as she pleases, eating what she wants, and swimming in the community pool. But something has followed her from her former residence―Death’s shadow.

Kumiko’s sweet life is shattered when Death’s shadow swoops in to collect her. With her quick mind and sense of humor, Kumiko, with the help of friends new and old, is prepared for the fight of her life. But how long can an old woman thwart fate?

Graphic novel, fantasy, magical realism, literary fiction, slice-of-life, adult

Hunger Pangs series (True Love Bites) by Joy Demorra

In a world of dwindling hope, love has never mattered more...

Captain Nathan J. Northland had no idea what to expect when he returned home to Lorehaven injured from war, but it certainly wasn't to find himself posted on an island full of vampires. An island whose local vampire dandy lord causes Nathan to feel strange things he'd never felt before. Particularly about fangs.

When Vlad Blutstein agreed to hire Nathan as Captain of the Eyrie Guard, he hadn't been sure what to expect either, but it certainly hadn't been to fall in love with a disabled werewolf. However Vlad has fallen and fallen hard, and that's the problem.

Torn by their allegiances--to family, to duty, and the age-old enmity between vampires and werewolves--the pair find themselves in a difficult situation: to love where the heart wants or to follow where expectation demands.

The situation is complicated further when a mysterious and beguiling figure known only as Lady Ursula crashes into their lives, bringing with her dark omens of death, doom, and destruction in her wake.

And a desperate plea for help neither of them can ignore.

Thrown together in uncertain times and struggling to find their place amidst the rising human empire, the unlikely trio must decide how to face the coming darkness: united as one or divided and alone. One thing is for certain, none of them will ever be the same.

Fantasy, romance, paranormal, series, adult

[wedarkacademia]

She did not care for the company of humans, because they were small and bothersome. She just watched the birds in the trees and picked mushrooms in the forest. Her life with herself was complete and she felt little need to ever change it.

Hiromi Goto, Chorus of Mushrooms

[gennsoup]

The words of one woman would not have turned the marching boots of men, but the pain of not having spoken, of not bothering to ask questions, still aches inside me now.

Hiromi Goto, Chorus of Mushrooms

[nevinslibrary]

Comic Book Saturday

This was such a cute book. I know, I know, it’s about Kumiko as she’s trying to avoid Death, oh, and also sorta avoiding her adult daughters because she’s recently broken out of the assisted living place she’d been living in. (It’s early in the book, but, my favorite pages were when she finds some pretty darn good looking wood that someone got rid of and needs to get it home so she can make some shelves).

The story was great, and hilarious (a vacuum cleaner. Heh…) but, it was the art that really caught my attention. The characters were so, real. Not in a photo sort of way, instead when reading it, they just sort of seemed real. I’m not describing it exactly right, so… just go read this fun graphic novel, you won’t regret it.

You may like this book If you Liked: Talk To My Back by Murasaki Yamada, Ish by Adam De Souza, or Wrinkles by Paco Roca

Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto

[raphies-art-blog]

2/3

Slight blood warning below

[highsummonermercar]

More mainstream pop artists took a switch to R&B during this time including the now retired singer and dancer, Namie Amuro. After much criticism for dabbling in R&B in the 90s, songs from her Style, Queen to Hip-Pop and PLAY albums started gaining interest; notably Put ‘Em Up, So Crazy, Girl Talk, HELLO and Pink Key. Along with Amuro, ero-kawaii artist Koda Kumi became a trendsetter after her Best~First Things~ got popular. She had R&B tracks that heightened like 秘密 (Secret), this is not a love song and No Way from some of her best albums, Kingdom, TRICK and UNIVERSE. The versatility in J-R&B songs showcased to many in the industry that it was impactful  and interest from artists such as Ishida Yuko’s Missin’ U,  SATOMI’s Baby Doll, MISIA’s ANY LOVE, YA-KYIM’s someday, Leah Dizon’s Softly, May J.’s Why Why Why and Yuna Ito’s Losin in the mid  2000’s to early 2010s. Even R&B was pouring into idol songs like Morning Musume’s Do It Now and Goto Maki’s Tear Drops. Along with these tracks, there were many other standout albums that were heavily influenced such as Hiromi’s Rainbow, Kato Miliyah’s Heaven, AI’s The Last Ai, Jasmine’s Gold, LISA’s Gratitude, BENI’s Jewel and Thelma Aoyama’s Diary.

Japanese R&B – The State of It All

[librarycards]

hello all, and welcome to your favorite book rec series! :) here are my favorites of the first quarter of 2024. it was, as always, a tough choice, and several 5-star books had to be left out. to see all of my book reviews/follow my reading life, add or follow me on goodreads (and check out my forthcoming novel on goodreads and storygraph while you're at it). I also recommend all kinds of media on my newsletter, which a couple hundred people seem to like!)

with that, here are my top 9 books (in no particular order) of jan-march 2024!

Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian Walks

Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina

Megan Milks, Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body

Hiromi Goto, Chorus of Mushrooms

Carla Sofia Ferreira, A Geography That Does Not Hurt Us

Sam Sax, A Guide to Undressing Your Monsters

C Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey

Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

Ulrich Jesse K Baer, Deer Black Out [I was lucky to get an ARC of this one; it drops in April!]

tagging people who are or might be interested below - but feel free to do this for yourself and tag me, i read every single one i'm tagged in and update my tbr accordingly! thanks for reading & loving this series as much as i do :3

@heavenlyyshecomes @communicationissues @fluoresensitive @gwenderqueer @capricornpropaganda @discworldwitches @stephen-deadalus @materialisnt @boykeats @growtiredofpublicvulnerability @flameswallower @closet-keys @fatehbaz @trans-axolotl @bioethicists @aldieb @petesdragon @passerea @lesbianlizzybennet @slowtides @felgueirosa @sadhoc @sawasawako @candiedsmokedsalmon @tirragen @punkkwix @feypact @abstractlesbian @crippleprophet and anyone who wants to!

[bleachbleachbleach]

Reading Update

Not Bleach-related, but since this is where I've been putting my writing updates, in my mind it's also where my reading ones should go. I basically only get to read things May-August, so I've been on a tear. But I keep reading things I don't end up liking? Which, HELP. WHY.

It makes me feel like such a hater, or someone who's too closed-off to things outside of my expectations that I automatically, anti-intellectually hate it, but then I'm like, okay, but I have not picked up a single fanfic this year that I did not think was brilliant. I have seen three movies this year I thought were brilliant (Fancy Dance, Evil Does Not Exist, and the Haikyuu movie, the last of which is definitely 100% like the other two)! I have read a lot of really fantastic article-length creative nonfiction that I also found brilliant!

MAYBE I JUST DON'T LIKE BOOKS.

Books I Really Liked

The Souvenir Museum - Elizabeth McCracken

Flux - Jinwoo Chong

Run Me To Earth - Paul Yoon

Shadow Life - Hiromi Goto

I know I just said "not Bleach-related," I actually think some Bleach folks would be into a lot of these, depending on where your specific interests within Bleach lie.

The Souvenir Museum had fabulous character work, and I love what I'm beginning to feel is something signature about McCracken, in that most of these stories were realist New England fiction and then out of the blue she slid one in there that was sorta-supernatural and also about cannibalism. Love that for her! Love that for me.

Flux is a speculative time travel thriller, but where it stands out is how much trust it places in its audience to follow along and hop in medias res with all these characters and premises. There's no extraneous exposition or explainers; it just drops you in the deep end and it's so much fun. There's also a lot in this book that is about TV and fandom and while I usually find it hard to buy into depictions of these things this book gets it so, so right for me. And the dialogue is fantastically tight and snappy and so full of life--I loved Part 1 in particular, and the book is worth it just for that!

Run Me To Earth is beautiful. Trenchant, haunting. Each character feels like a small poem, living and breathing and doing their best to avoid unexploded ordinances while riding a motorbike. And bonus Inuzuri vibes for me

(And Shadow Life I already talked about here. That's the one where a lady traps Death inside of her vacuum cleaner.)

Books I Am Actively Annoyed By

All That’s Left Unsaid - Tracey Lien

Your Driver is Waiting - Priya Guns

The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu - Tom Lin

AKA "maybe I just don't like genre fiction." These were a mystery, lesbian thriller, and western, respectively, and the whole time I was basically like, "we're really just doing this, huh?" In each of these, the character work wasn't strong enough to make the story, and I guess from each I expected more critical engagement with the genre? And not "we're going to un-self-consciously depict and then slaughter a bunch of bloodthirsty Indians because THAT'S WHAT WESTERNS DO." These were all books that sounded theoretically interesting to me but in practice were very not.

Nonfiction That I Wish Had Been Better

Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals - Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Dear Elia - Mimi Khuc

What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape - Sohaila Abdulali

Mott Street - Ava Chin

How to Read Now, Elaine Castillo

Eating Wildly - Ava Chin [DNF]

I think I'm just a pop nonfiction hater, because my issue with all of these is that they often felt like too-superficial treatments of their subject or seemed extremely (sometimes intentionally) undercited. Multiple of these kept making assertions about having developed an original thesis/practice or never having seen X in the world, when that's simply not true. These just make me think about all of the stylistically brilliant, incredibly thoughtful creative nonfiction being published online/in magazines, and how pale these book-length treatments feel in comparison.

(Almost) Everything Else

River East, River West - Aub Rey Lescure (this is the Naruto hentai book)

Our Missing Hearts - Celeste Ng

I Would Meet You Anywhere - Susan Ito

Tea: History, Terroirs, Varieties - Kevin Gascoyne

Bowlaway - Elizabeth McCracken

Book I Could Not Physically Read Because I Hated it So Much I Couldn't Stand It

The Leftover Woman, Jean Kwok

Future Reads

Four Treasures of the Sky - Jenny Zhang

Pnin - Vladimir Nabokov

Miko Kings, LeAnne Howe

A Bestiary - Lily Hoang

[educated-dumbass]

Books with Older Protagonists

Quick Key:

🍄= I’ve read and recommend

🥀= on my tbr list

Fantasy:

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (42 year old MC)

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (Elderly Couple MC’s) 🥀

The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson (55 year old MC) 🥀

The Bone Maker by Sarah Beth Durst (Middle aged MC’s)

Mystery:

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (~70+ years old MC’s) 🥀

Vera Wongs Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto (~60 years old MC)

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey (82 years old MC)

Horror:

Ghost Story by Peter Straub (Elderly MC’s) 🥀

Bone Harvest by James Brogden (Senior citizen MC)

Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King (65 year old MC’s)

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix (30-50 years old MC’s)

Fiction:

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (~70 years old MC)

How to Age Disgracefully by Claire Pooley (Senior Citizens)

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (59 years old MC)

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (39 year old, 87 year old, middle aged, and ~50 year old MC’s)

Graphic Novels:

Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto (76 year old MC)

Audubon on the Wings of the World

In by Will McPhail (millennial aged MC)

Poetry:

(About Aging and Growing)

Older, Wiser, Shorter: The Truth and Humor of Life After 65 by Jane Seskin

Old Stranger by Joan Larkin 🥀

Sunset Years: You’re still the one by Frank A. Lancione

Our Aching Bones, Our Breaking Hearts by Joel Savishinsky

Howling at the Moon by Darshana Suresh

Romance:

The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian (~80+ years old MC’s) (Already in a relationship)

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf (79 and 81 years old MC’s) 🥀

Science Fiction:

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (~30-50 years old MC’s)

Greybeard by Brian W. Aldiss (50+ years old MC’s)

Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon (70 year old MC)

[kb1301]

The Blorbos Board

This is the Blorbos Board where I just list down all the blorbos I have! They're my favorite characters from any franchise or fandom. There will definitely be lots of them so I may not be able to list all of them. Anything in bold and red means they're my favorite of favorites.

#kb blorbos (general tag for all things blorbo)

Call of Duty

König

Ghost (Original and Reboot)

Horangi

Soap (Original and Reboot)

Roach

Gaz

Price

Alejandro

Rodolfo / Rudy

Keegan P Russ

Logan Walker

Nikto

Sebastian Krueger

Barrage (it’s literally a fucking skin for the default operators but wtaf)

Destiny 2

Lord Shaxx

Saint-14

Cayde-6

Osiris

Ikora Rey

Crow

Lord Felwinter

Failsafe

Andal Brask

Eido

Shiro-4

Misraaks / Mithrax

Baldur's Gate 3

Gale

Shadowheart

Karlach

Wyll

Lae'zel

Astarion

Halsin

Minthara

Jaheira

Minsc

Gortash

Default Durge

Rainbow Six Siege

Thermite (This is my attack main in the game)

Pulse (This is my defense main in the game)

Ace (He's just here being pretty)

Hibana

Mozzie

Flores

Jäger

Fuze

Kapkan

Glaz

Stardew Valley

Alex

Haley

Harvey

Shane

Penny

Mass Effect

Garrus Vakarian

Tali'Zorah

Liara T'Soni

Urdnot Wrex

Commander Shepard

EDI

Joker

Kasumi Goto

Kaidan Alenko

Legion

Mordin Solus

Miranda

Jack

Dragon Age

Alistair Theirin

Leliana

Morrigan

Zevran

Anders

Hawke (Garrett or Marian or Custom)

Fenris

Isabela

Merrill

Varric Tethras

Cassandra Pentaghast

Cullen Rutherford

Josephine Montilyet

Blackwall / Thom Rainier

Dimension 20

The Bad Kids

The Dream Team

The Taste Buds

The Gunner Channel / The Wurst Crew

Pack of Pixies

Oisin Hakinvar

Mary Ann Skuttle

Elder Scrolls

Sharp-as-Night

Razum-dar

Teldryn Sero

Serana

Zeritha-var

Inigo the Brave

Lucien Flavius

Fallout

Craig Boone

ED-E

Rex

Veronica Santangelo

Arcade Gannon

Rose of Sharon Cassidy

The Ghoul / Cooper Howard

Lucy MacLean

Norm MacLean

Maximus

Thaddeus

Darkest Dungeon

Crusader (Reynauld)

Highwayman (Dismas)

Vestal (Junia)

Plague Doctor (Paracelsus)

Bounty Hunter (Tardif)

Leper (Baldwin)

Flagellant (Damian)

Jujutsu Kaisen

Kusakabe Atsuya

Nanami Kento

Higuruma Hiromi

Takuma Ino

Kong Shiu

Itadori Yuuji

Okkotsu Yuuta

Zenin Maki

Others

Deadpool / Wade Wilson (Marvel)

Wolverine / Logan Hewlett (Marvel)

Captain (Risk of Rain 2)

Bandit (Risk of Rain 2) <- My main

Commando (Risk of Rain 2)

Ramattra (Overwatch)

Moira (Overwatch)

Gabriel (Ultrakill)

V1 (Ultrakill)

Minos Prime (Ultrakill)

[imaginariumgeographica]

book ask 3 and 18

3 I already answered but I am gonna cheat and talk about five other books I loved

The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon - this book is a fucking experience. Books to stare out the window of the subway at nothing to.

System Collapse by Martha Wells - I could not fail to love another Murderbot book.

The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan - ditto another Percy Jackson book with the original three getting up to adventures and being best friends.

Emergent Properties by Aimee Ogden - what a weird good little robot book! Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto - this was a random graphic novel I borrowed from overdrive in the time the library has been down and I really enjoyed it! Knew nothing going in and had a very good time 18 - How many books did you buy?

I always think 'I didn't buy that many books' and then I think for like 5 seconds longer and realise I in fact did. I bought at least 8. Possibly more. Likely more.

(The ones I can remember are Translation State, Under the Whispering Door (in Boulder!), Learned by Heart (in London), A Desolation Called Peace and Rivers of London (in Toulouse), Wintersmith, two Victoria Goddard books, and the 10th anniversary Ancillary Justice)

[vrysrsimportanttokushipbracket]

Total Vote Count!

Some final data for a true Eurovision style ending; counting up the votes themselves to see what the final placement is!

So, Who has the most dedicated fanbase?

Junichi Chouno/Tsubaki Shuuichi - 6 Kazuki Komon/Jun Himeya, Matoi Tatsumi/Yuji Kudo, Kouta Fukuda/Makoto Shidou - 14 Kiriya Kujou/Graphite - 19 Daimon Tatsumi/Eiji Nagase - 20 Shinji Kido/Shiro Kanzaki, Hayato Ichimonji/Amazon - 21 Parad/Kuroto Dan, Sougo Tokiwa/Woz - 22 Chihiro/Hiroki Nagase, Yuka Osada/Keitaro Kikuchi, Kuroto Dan/Emu Hojo - 25 Hikari Nonomura/Haru Tokashiki - 26 Right Suzuki/Z, Jun Maehara/Ryuusuke Ootaki - 27 Long/Rio - 29 Sosuke Esumi/Renn Kousaka, Kaoru Kino/Koji Majima - 34 Mirai Hibino/Ryu Aihara - 37 Belial/Kei Fukuide, Miyuki Tezuka/Jun Shibaura - 39 Tatsuya Asami/Ayase - 43 Lucky/Stinger - 49 Shou Tatsumi/Big Douser - 50 Kiriya Kujou/Emu Hojo - 55 Gunpei Ishihara/Hant Jou - 56 Matsuri Tatsumi/Denus, Basco ta Jolokia/Captain Marvelous - 57 Miyuki Tezuka/Ren Akiyama - 59 Haruka Mizusawa/Mamoru - 61 Homare Soya/Hiroyuki Kudo - 62 Sou Yaguruma/Shun Kageyama - 63 Urataros/Kintaros - 64 Sougo Tokiwa/Heure, Domon/Honami Moriyama - 65 Alain/Makoto Fukami - 72 Jin Takayama/Izumi Nanaha - 78 Kagura Izumi/Mio Natsumi - 81 Hayato Ichimonji/Kazuya Taki - 84 Hideyuki Kagawa/Satoru Tojo - 91 Sid Bamick/Joe Gibken - 93 Ryouga Hakua/Mikoto Nakadai - 96 Asahi Minato/Saki Mitsurugi - 97 Enter/Hiromu Sakurada - 106 Momotaros/Ryoutarou Nogami - 110 Joji Yuki/Shiro Kazami - 137 Balance/Naga Ray - 145 Ikkou Kasumi/Yousuke Shiina - 152 Yuji Kiba/Takumi Inui - 156 Ren Akiyama/Shinji Kido - 170 Miu Sutou/Saki Rouyama - 183 Shoutarou Hidari/Philip - 187 Hanaya Taiga/Hiiro Kagami - 192 Ruriko Midorikawa/Hiromi - 197 King OOO/Ankh - 202 Tsukasa Kadoya/Daiki Kaito - 203 Teddy/Kotaro Nogami - 232 Takeshi Kuroki/Masato Jin - 256 Jugglus Juggler/Gai Kurenai - 273 Shuichi Kitaoka/Goro Yura - 369 Akira Date/Shintaro Goto - 469 Yusuke Godai/Kaoru Ichijou - 485 Momoi Tarou/Sonoi - 534

Congratulations to winner of most dedicated fanbase; Momoi Tarou/Sonoi!

[funguswench]

books i read 2023

- The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams

- The Magnolia Palace - Fiona Davis

- Everything that Rises Must Converge - Flannery O’Connor

- The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee - David Treuer

- The Four Winds - Kristin Hannah

- Happy Hour - Marlowe Granados

- Gone Tomorrow - Heather Rogers

- A History of the World in 6 Glasses - Tom Standage

- The Professor of Desire - Philip Roth

- I Used to Live Here Once - Miranda Seymour

- The Secret Life of Groceries - Benjamin Lorr

- Chorus of Mushrooms - Hiromi Goto

- It Can’t Happen Here - Sinclair Lewis

- The Secret Wisdom of Nature - Peter Wohlleben

- My Heart is a Chainsaw - Stephen Graham Jones

- Upgrade - Blake Crouch

- On Corruption in America and What is at Stake - Sarah Chayes

- Red Famine - Anne Applebaum

- Dune - Frank Herbert

- The Uninhabitable Earth - Davis Wallace-Wells

- Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

- White Fragility - Robin Diangelo

- Nice Racism - Robin Diangelo

- Japanese Ghost Stories - Lafcadio Hearn

- All That She Carried - Tiya Miles

- Entangled Life - Merlin Sheldrake

- Erosion - Terry Tempest Willisms

- Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

- A Room with a View - E.M. Forester

- Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver

- Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler

- Barkskins - Annie Proulx

- All About Love - bell hooks

- Communion: the Female Search for Love - bell hooks

- The Night Watchman - Louise Erdich

- The Well Gardened Mind - Sue Stuart-Smith

- The Gold Bug Variations - Richard Powers

[koholint]

today's playlist:

Chiaki Takahashi - Suteki na Holiday

Saori Goto - Omoide Christmas

Erena Kaibara - Egao ni Merry Christmas

Hiromi Tsuru, Miyuki Muroi, Run Sasaki - Jingle Bells ga Nakunatta

Susumu Hirasawa with Wakako Shimazaki - Africa no Christmas

Tomoko Tane - X'mas

MAHO-Dou - White Christmas

Midori Karashima - Hoshizora no Christmas Party

The Whispers - It's Christmas

Caoli Cano - Last Christmas

Lord Nelson - Party for Santa Claus

Klezmonauts - Oy to the World

The Free Design - Christmas is the Day

Megumi Nakajima - Ranka no "Kutsushita no Uta"

thanks for listening!