I’m not quite sure what I think about Friends – I enjoyed reading it overall, but it’s hard to discuss without talking about the ending, which I don’t want to spoil. I will be interested in your views on it if you read it.
I don’t think 雨のティアラ is horror at all – the blurb calls it 三姉妹とその家族をめぐる、温かな物語.
Gotcha. It will probably be a week or so before I read it (depending how soon I finish 小さき花々). So I’ll let you know once I’ve finished.
I did see the blurb, and tried reading a few reviews, one of which mentioned a バケ屋敷 reviews, but I guess I was misinterpreting things. Still, the cover illustration gives a very “supernatural + mysterious” vibe to me. ちなみに the inside says 本書は書き下ろしです。- which I wonder why they felt the need to specify.
I think it’s not unusual for a publisher to write this, I’ve already seen it several times. It just says that the text was nowhere published before, so they were (proud to be) the first one to do it.
Over halfway through 小さき花々 花物語 | L39 - it’s turned out very different than what I would have expected.
On one hand, it’s akin to a kids book, in a way that 小さき花々 花物語 | L39 is not. The language level is much simpler (probly low L30s), and the stories mostly have some sort of lesson to impart. Unlike 花物語 the stories aren’t all 百合* or about two girls’ relationships (the first four are, and the next 2-3 or not, and there’s about 3 left). There’s very heavy incorporation of class issues and prejudices, and various challenging family troubles (usually economic or health) or other interesting circumstances. Some of the stories have a small touch of the supernatural, and there’s a mix of endings - sad, bittersweet, happy, enabling, etc. Anyway this is both the first kid’s book and (along with 花物語), the first short story collection I’ll finish. It’s been interesting, but I’m really eager to read 屋根裏の二処女 吉屋信子乙女小説コレクション (吉屋信子乙女小説コレクション 2) | L30?? or わすれなぐさ | L37 next - which are both standard novels, involving S relationships (and in the latter’s case, a love triangle), with some rather interesting plot elements.
Speaking of 花物語, there really haven’t been a lot of strictly S relationships/Class S stories in there. It’s really been a lot of evanescent chance meetings, yearning, unrequited love, or separations due to life circumstances type stories - tho again with a real diversity of settings, backgrounds, events, etc. Anyway I encountered the first “S relationship from the お姉さん’s perspective” story I’ve come across there, and that was really interesting - since the perspective character in everything I’ve read so far has always been the younger character.
It’s making me realize that マリア様がみてる is probably unique amongst both Class S and yuri novels, for its long-term storytelling, and ensemble cast. As far as I know, all of Yoshiya’s works are single volume. To be fair there are some modern yuri novels that are getting up there in length, but the longest ones I can think of are between 8-11 volumes so far - so nothing approaching the 37 volumes (33 of which relate to the main story) of Marimite, with an ensemble of relationships. The only other novel series I can think of that does the ensemble cast thing is 声優ラジオのウラオモテ | L28 - and even then, the other characters are side characters, in a way that the 山百合会 members are not.
It has interviews with various yuri authors. The only one I recognized is 今野緒雪 (マリみて author), which is of course what got me to buy the book. Anyway, I’m really curious to read the rest of the interviews, and look up who all these authors are - maybe I’ll know a few. This will definitely be a “whenever I’m in the mood” read. I’m intrigued that it’s marked L39, cuz at least so far the interview with 今野緒雪 it’s easier than that. So I’m curious to see what the harder portions will be like, and how they’ll compare to related Wikipedia pages
Where did you buy it from? I think technically it’s a magazine issue rather than a book, so it’s been out of print for a decade. (I got my copy back when it was still available.)
I’m the only person who’s graded it and I did so nearly a decade after I actually read it, so I wouldn’t put too much weight on it. But it’s one of those things where there’s a wide variety of content, from actual oneshot manga (easy) through author interviews (not too hard) to lit-crit essays on particular works or the genre more generally (harder), so the difficulty varies quite a bit.
Kindle store. Amazon has it listed as ムック本, and has 1 volume in stock tho. Maybe if I order flowers from there, I’ll see if the shipping makes sense, and get them together. That’s a very big maybe tho lol
Speaking of out of print magazine issues. I really wish I could find a copy of コバルト1997年2月 or 4月 (idk which is right) - which is where the original マリみて short story, featuring Noriko as the main character, was published. Really curious to read it, and see how it compares to book 9 - which coincidentally where the series “really starts” for me. (Nothing against vol 1-8, but the combination of graduation + new １年生 allows the story to open up a lot)
Noted - that’s kinda what I was expecting content-wise, tho I didn’t realize there were actual manga in there too. I really wanna find more essays on yuri (history or critique/analysis) in general
Probably 2月 - 今野緒雪 is credited on the cover of that one for a スペシャル読み切り but isn’t listed on the 4月 cover.
The National Diet Library has a copy, of course (in the 国際子ども図書館), but that’s not much use unless you’re in Tokyo.
Ahh useful to know if I try to track it down again. Maybe it’s available via that xerox and mail service thing they do. But even then, I have no idea what page numbers it is, and copying the whole magazine is certainly overboard. I have seen old listings for it on Mercari and stuff, but they’re long sold out. Anyway, almost certainly a lost cause. If I ever go to Tokyo someday, I’ll see if I can read it there I guess
I finished どうしたら幼馴染の彼女になれますか!? | L23 rereading the first 4 volumes and finishing the last 5th.
When I read it the first time, I remember being kind of meh on it by the time I started volume 4. Probably in large part because of slow pacing. And then I didn’t really like the end of volume 4. The degree to which 柚子 seemed to just ignore 未波s advances seemed willful and cruel to me and made her hard to like.
But now I honestly loved it. Maybe because I read it all in a few days.
I had actually avoided 君に紡ぐ傍白 | L21 by the same author before when 暁のルナ nominated it in the wlwBC because I was so meh on どうしたら. Even though it seemed pretty cool because it’s colored and no high school setting. But now I plan to read it in the future.
What was it that you found frustrating?
Class-S (and Related) Reading Club - READING 少女たちの痕にくちづけを 1 | L21 - #29 by 暁のルナ
It didn’t 
Speaking of 君に紡ぐ傍白 | L21 it’s actually currently on sale: https://bookwalker.jp/debb88fda3-abe5-4a57-91e5-49eadcaedb2d/
They’re by the same author?!?! I never would have guessed that in a million years. The writing and art in 君に紡ぐ傍白 is so much better, imo. (Not to mention the full color!)
Firstly it was beginning to feel unnecessarily and unrealistically dragged out. But the thing that really did me end was the straight up confession + kiss attempt, and 柚子 rejecting 未波 just felt so incredibly unrealistic and disappointing, after all that build up, and multiple previous attempts from 未波. Like there’s mental gymnastics, and then there’s that nonsense - and it was just not convincing that 柚子 could actually be that dense/willfully ignorant. After that chapter it was pretty clear the author either didn’t know what to do, or was told to finish up the series, cuz it rushed through the fallout, and then suddenly gave us the “happy ending” chapter like 2-3 chapters later.
It is possible I would have liked it a bit more if I hadn’t been reading it as it was releasing. But that rejection in ch 25, just completely killed it for me. Great concept, but poor execution, as it got towards the end. I like a good, torturously slow “will they, won’t they” - but it has to be done well.
I enjoyed 君に紡ぐ far more than どうしたら. Will they won’t they stories just get tiring when they go on so long.
Agreed. If volume 5 wasn’t the last volume I would have dropped the series.
I’ve been bltizing through Onimai volumes this week, mostly because I’ve been procrastinating on Silent Witch (honestly, the only reason I’m going to finish Silent Witch at this point is that (a) it’s a club read and (b) I’m near the end and need to finish some novel in April for my goals). For Onimai, I’m on volume 9 now, so soon I’ll need a new “easy read”.
Silent Witch had a good intro and a decent premise, but I think it would have been better as a novel than a light novel. Like the club is now 80% through and there’s not much in the way of resolution coming, because being on an ongoing serialized novel I guess the author feels they can take their time. But reading at IBC pace, that means I’m on week 14 of filler feeling 
Other than that, I want to get back to 13 sentinels.
Was not expecting this level of meta:
少女小説 is the genre of this book (小さき花々 花物語 | L39). The stories in here were serialized in 少女の友, before being printed as a book. And リッツル・ウィメン (aka 若草物語 ポプラ世界名作童話 | L20) was influential on 少女 and Class S culture (and broadly popular in Japan still, iirc) to the point that if there’s a play being put on in a modern yuri, there’s a really good chance it’s Little Women. So I was amused. Edit: speaking of, there’s like 5 different editions of 若草物語 on Natively. Does anyone have any clue what the difference is? Well one is an isekai version or something.
And I have just 2 stories left, so I’ll probably finish it tonight. Then start my reread of 少女たちの痕にくちづけを 1 | L21 for the book club. Will be a nice change of pace to read something easy. Update: I finished it, it was great, left a review here. The 解説 at the end was pointless, after having already read the book, except for a few historical facts.
Then maybe I’ll try to finish up the かぐや姫 story in 美少女戦士セーラームーン 6 | L24 - tho it’s not grabbing me much yet
As I passed the 80% mark on 本好き this morning I had this exact thought. Like, we’re almost to the end of this book and it’s all just things that are happening, no real resolution in sight. It’s given me a better idea to what it is about the series so far that kinda bothers me, despite generally liking the broad strokes. (Also good to know that Silent Witch suffers from the same issue for whenever I get back to that one…)
I haven’t read a ton of LNs, but the ones that I have have mostly been slice of life (bc, vocabulary), and while there’s an overarching plot thread that isn’t resolved, there’s at least some conflict that feels like it needs to be resolved in the volume.
This is why I couldn’t read at club pace for this one. I read the prologue and chapter one, then paused, then blitzed through chapter six, then paused, and now I’m blitzing through the rest. This just isn’t a good book for reading week to week, but I’m enjoying it at the faster pace.
Other than the isekai novel, they have four different translators, so the actual texts will be different. Three of them seem to be “abridged versions for children” – they only have 150 pages or so, they’re in a series with versions of various other classic children’s stories, and the Amazon pages have lots of fluff about colour illustrations and fold out maps and things (classic “birthday present from a grandparent” fodder). The only one that looks like a non abridged translation would be the four volume Aoitori edition 若草物語 | L20?? which at four volumes of 350 pages each is about ten times the length. Or you could get the Kadokawa not-aimed-at-children edition if you prefer (not on Natively yet).
It’s funny to see it mentioned here. One of my kids literally just finished reading volume one of that version yesterday. I guess it fits this thread 
Other than that, I am still reading the water wizard LN. I just realized that they are 500-600 pages a piece (edit: I don’t know where Natively got those numbers from, Amazon says ~400), which would explain why it feels so long.
Among other series that I actually enjoy, TRPGプレイヤーが異世界で最強ビルドを目指す 11 上 ~ヘンダーソン氏の福音を~ | L40 just came out today, but I can’t really justify buying more books. Anyway, it’s a 上, so it will most likely end on a cliffhanger. Might as well wait a few month and read the full thing in a single shot.
That does sound fun, if I were getting the physical. One of the English books I’m reading talks about the first translation into Japanese (in like the late Meiji era), it’s a very rough and not 100% faithful version apparently. Would probably be interesting to read someday… Tho I imagine hard to find, and hard to read
The Isekai one does sound kinda interesting
Ohh vol 1, 3, & 4 are Kindle Unlimited too - nice! I guess I’ll just add that as a regular novel then, since it’s not specifically aimed at kids. Thanks so much! Edit: it has a jpdb deck too!! And apparently there’s a 1980s anime
Your other free option is that Aozora has the 1948 水谷 まさる translation. (They don’t seem to have that first 北田秋圃 translation, which Wikipedia says went under the title 小婦人.)
