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packbat: A bat wearing a big asexual-flag (black-gray-white-purple) backpack. (Default)
Thursday, December 29th, 2022 08:45 pm

Someone turned us on to Trying Out Marriage With My Female Friend by Usui Shio (aka Onna Tomodachi to Kekkon Shitemita) and it's extremely adorable!

Minor content warning for hospitalization (spoilers inside for those who wish to skip it)

In Chapter 7 ("It's alright, I can endure this"), Ruriko has pain of increasing intensity, which she downplays because she doesn't want to ruin Kurumi's day ... but this means that it is only when Kurumi gets home that she learns her wife is in the hospital. (This is thanks to the couple's mutual friend Kuroda, who realizes upon calling that Ruriko is very sick and takes her.)

Ruriko's pain turns out to be appendicitis - fortunately a minor case, but she has to be on antibiotics through an IV for three or four days, time which is skipped over fairly quickly. The main thing that occurs here is Kurumi being distressed that Ruriko didn't tell her ("that ... that makes it seem like we're nothing more than friends...") and telling Ruriko, "There's nothing more important to me than you, Ruriko" when explaining that Ruriko should have told her and it wouldn't've been a bother.

(Instead of being able to verbally acknowledge this, Ruriko notices Kurumi's wet hair and tells her that she shouldn't forget her umbrella - "I don't want you to catch a cold." Kurumi accepts this as just the kind of person Ruriko is.)

Ruriko is discharged on page 00074, near the end of Chapter 8 ("What's important to me").

(Also, content warning for food - it's a recurring thing throughout - and occasional alcohol.)

This is slice-of-life in the most lovingly mundane form: the protagonists navigate chores, purchases, and differing dispositions, and the feelings and questions that spill out from these day-to-day things.

...but they also deal quite directly with amatonormativity. Their marriage does not fit the cultural model of romance and sex that surrounds them, but it also does not fit the model of "just friends" that they initially assumed it would. They care quite intensely about each other, are desirous of each other's company, and do their best to support each other through struggles small and great. Their approach to the whole affair feels much in the vein of relationship anarchy: dissecting their feelings and making decisions based on what works for each of them, finding where their joys lie and celebrating that in the face of the obliviousness of others, and talking to each other.

I don't know if their relationship as of now is more queerplatonic or ace romantic, and I don't know if the author plans to remain in this space for the rest of the story's run or to portray its metamorphosis into something else. But I do know their relationship is healthy, and nuturing, and sweet.

It's currently serializing in Japanese - Chapter 22 came out this month, looks like.

packbat: A bat wearing a big asexual-flag (black-gray-white-purple) backpack. (gettysburg)
Friday, August 27th, 2010 10:12 pm
I wish this was a proper review, but the book came out a good seven years ago - long enough for this to be awfully old news regardless.

I. Love. Moneyball.

I would say this, if I were cynical and funny: Moneyball is, ironically enough, a story about how storytelling is deceptive. But it's not true. There is a hint of that feeling when I read it - the story is such a good story that I'd want to believe it if the entire book was lies from cover to cover, and the book does warn against dreaming and making up expectations based on merely what you see - but I would do Michael Lewis an injustice if I said that. The man worked his butt off getting it right, and that dedication shows.

What is the material? Well, Moneyball is, perhaps, the perfect underdog story: a story about a baseball team (the Oakland Athletics) with a financial payroll tinier than almost any other in a sport where the richest teams spend many multiples more than the poorest ... that sets out to win, with a determination and intelligence that is an inspiration to behold. Moneyball is also a layman's introduction to that intelligence which, long ignored by the very people who would most benefit from it, finally found its instantiation in the Oakland A's: sabermetrics. And Moneyball is a story of this intelligence on this team reaching out to rescue an oddball collection of underrated players and give them the chance to give a bloody eye to the entire baseball establishment that didn't see how good they were.

And it's a story of how such a thing should ever happen - how mistakes were made and perpetuated and compounded upon, and how the visions found when that fog of confusion was pierced could take so long and strange a journey to where they deserved to play out: on the diamond.

It's a business book, a sociology lesson, a baseball story, and a hell of a good read. A nearer approach to perfection in nonfiction is rarely seen.
packbat: A bat wearing a big asexual-flag (black-gray-white-purple) backpack. (Default)
Saturday, April 25th, 2009 09:15 am

Out of all of your favorite books, pick just one you'd recommend everyone read. As a bonus: why did you pick that one?

View other answers



Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. Picked it for two reasons:

  • It's well-written.
  • It's funny.


Seriously. If you can read in English, I think you will enjoy this book. J. is one of the greatest raconteurs of all time.

P.S. It's out of copyright - 1889 - so it's available everywhere online.