Chenqing 100

I left on a family vacation yesterday, flying coast-to-coast US (now on West Coast) with my family, so I read a lot - first in the week leading up to the trip, cause I had a bunch of physical library books I wanted to return, and then of course during the flights and layover. Anyway.

1. What are you currently reading?

I'm about halfway through Babel by R. F. Kuang. I still am enjoying it but the tension is building in a way that's making me slow down - I don't want to keep turning pages to reach the point where everything falls apart, sigh. I also started vol 4 of the TGCF manhua in Chinese but didn't bother bringing it on my trip so it's on hold til we're home. 

2. What have you recently finish reading?

so much manga. so fuckin' much. and a lil non-manga graphic novel reading too.

• Rainbow! vol. 2 by Sunny: there was nothing objectively wrong with this (modern wlw), except a total mismatch between the title and cover art and the actual themes. It's presented as happy fluff but is in fact heavy family angst with a happy ending and I just can't wrap my head around it. It's a duology, at least, so this was the end.
• XXXHolic omnibus vol. 3 by CLAMP
• Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! vol. 13 by Yuu Toyota: I hope this is ending soon, I've enjoyed it but the author really seems to have run out of things to say.
• What Did You Eat Yesterday? vol. 2 and 3 by Fumi Yoshinaga: I don't think I'll be continuing with this. The food parts are entirely uninteresting to me - I just skipped them - but more than that, the mc is really kinda a jerk. Being told he's repeatedly settling by being with his boyfriend is such a yawn fest. Why would I read slice of life food blog stuff about a couple who hardly seem to like each other?
• 天官赐福 manhua vol. 3 by 墨香铜臭: I didn't quite manage three volumes in Chinese in two months but at least I finished this one early in the month?
• Moriarty the Patriot vol. 9 - 19 by Ryosuke Takeuchi: (SPOILERS) Sherlock/Moriarty is so canon that another character called out a conversation they had as them exchanging marriage vows so uh. there's that I guess. I was reading it with my wife next to me and I was like, "look at these two idiots these are basically marriage vows" and then I turned the page and on the next page was a character who'd over heard them going "look at you two idiots these are basically marriage vows.".(/END SPOILERS) I keep staring at it in Storygraph like. do I tag this mlm or not???? anyway, 19 is the last volume - I've finished the series. I have mixed feelings but I'm glad I didn't stop reading it when I hated the first few volumes lmao.
• Spent by Alison Bechdel: I was expecting this to be more like her three autobiographical graphic novels, so it was interesting that it was instead, like... a fictionalized fusion of her life + the characters from Dykes to Watch Out For. I'm very glad I'd read Dykes before reading this. It was nice to revisit those characters, esp through the lens of where they started in the early 80s and where they are now, like, now one has a non-binary asexual poly college student kid. NB and ace were no where in the early Dykes because a lot of that wasn't on our radar then, so seeing Bechdel's world expand as ours has is nice. I'm less sure I really grokked all the capitalism stuff, lmao, but still. Interesting book. I've not read anything by Bechdel I didn't like.
• The Way of the Househusband vol. 8 by Kousuke Oono
• Haikyu! vol. 34 by Haruichi Furudate
• Fire Force vol. 6 by Atsushi Ohkubo

3. What will you read next?

Well, I'm on this trip until we get home early Tuesday morning on a red-eye, so I planned books around "trip." After Babel, I've got the three volumes of Lip and Sword by Jin Shisi Chai with me, physically, and I also had scheduled a few Libby holds to come up around now, so I've got Go Luck Yourself by Sara Raasch, Gwen and Art are Not in Love by Lex Croucher, and The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison. So I will presumably read some combo of those, lol. For manga/graphic novels, I didn't bring any physical ones cause they're too short, what's the point of carrying them, but I've got like 10 titles on Libby; Acid Town vol. 6 by Kyugo is due in four days so presumably I'll read at least that, lol. That's my only one due within the next 7 days, tho, so I'm not sure which others I'll go for.