Ogawa Yayoi - Tramps Like Us, vol. 13-14 (Eng. trans.)

So, I read vol. 13 a few months ago and have unsurprisingly forgotten everything that happened in it. This made reading vol. 14 very odd, as vol. 14 reads more like an epilogue and less like a conclusion.

Quickly re-skimming vol. 13 makes things make more sense...

( Spoilers for both volumes )

In conclusion: though I like this series, I don't quite love it, and the same applies to the ending. I love that it addresses a lot of issues most series don't, but this is also its drawback, as I keep wanting it to go farther than it does, and it's frustrating seeing that.

Johnson, Angela - Bird

Like The First Part Last, this is a lovely little book. It's only 130+ pages long, with large font to boot, but Johnson manages to pack so much in those pages.

This feels like it belongs in that genre of YA/children's that I call "middle-class white girl angst" in my head (I say this because I love that genre to pieces), even though the heroine Bird is black. Johnson reminds me a lot of Sarah Dessen; they both share quiet, delicate prose; heroines looking for themselves; a very light touch with relationships that emphasizes how deep they run; and, what draws me most, a sympathy and empathy for their characters. Actually, it reminds me a lot of The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt as well, and is probably closer to that in terms of targeted ages (both skew younger than Dessen and are usually found in the children's section).

Bird has run away from Cleveland to Alabama to find her mother's ex-boyfriend Cecil, whom she thinks of as a stepfather. She's now living in a shed behind Ethan's house, and Ethan finds himself strangely drawn toward her. We also get the POV of a boy named Jay, who is connected to Ethan, though Ethan doesn't realize it.

The book is one of those "nothing happens" books for which I have an immense weakness, though it may bore people who want more action. But oh, I love it, and I love watching Bird and Ethan and Jay slowly unfurl and reach out to each other and to others.

I'm also immensely jealous of the writing; I wish I could do "everybody eats, nothing happens" this well. The prose isn't flashy, but it's smooth and sure:

Mama picks wildflowers and nurses baby squirrels and raccoons she finds in the woods. She smells sweet like magnolia and never blows the car horn. Daddy talks softer when she's in the room.

The world whispers when Mama is near.

I'm thinking now that the girl dancing under the moon might make the world whisper too.

And the best part is, I still have a good deal of Johnson's backlist saved up.