#Penguin Random House Canada

[writingwithfolklore]

5 Things about working in a (small) publishing house that surprised me

My experiences definitely aren’t true of the entire industry. I work in a very small, very local publishing house as a marketing assistant, and I’m certain that you’d have a much different experience at Penguin Random House, or even another small house on the other side of the country. That being said, here’s five things that really surprised me about what I’ve seen from the industry so far…

1. Very few of the people who work in publishing are writers

Okay this was one of the biggest surprises but also kind of makes sense? Publishing is a lot about the business side of things—numbers and marketing strategies and event planning, etc. People who are talented in design and accounting and other essential pieces to book publishing aren’t necessarily good at or practiced writers, and not all people who love reading also love writing!

I guess this surprised me so much because I’ve never been a reader without being a writer, but we often actually rely on the author’s writing on their own works (summaries, bios, etc.) to populate the backs of books and other marketing. Including me, there are three writers in my entire office.

2. Big booksellers (think Indigo) release yearly cover palettes for book covers

When we’re deciding the colours for a book cover, one thing that goes into that consideration is actually the different palettes Indigo releases! They have different palettes for different sections they update every year. I imagine it’s to fit a certain look for their shelves for new releases, but it’s not something I had ever really thought about, or thought that they would care about!

3. On that topic—publishing houses don’t sell to readers

My first day in marketing, my manager told me, “you’d think we’re selling to readers” I did think that. She said, “we’re actually selling to bookstores and libraries, they sell to readers.” How the money works is booksellers buy our books to put on their shelf. Everything they don’t sell, they’re allowed to trade back for credit, so we want them to buy big upfront, and then sell big to readers. Every book they send back is inventory we can’t get rid of and a “free” book for them down the line, so we don’t want books to come back!

If you want to support authors and your favourite publishing houses, buy from local bookstores who can’t afford to keep underselling books on their shelves for as long as say Indigo. If you really want to support authors, check out their books from libraries (yes really). Libraries are great because they buy books from publishing houses and can use the same one book to get into the hands of several readers, (in Canada) authors get a small amount every time a book is checked out (up to a certain amount so that the library’s entire budget doesn’t go to one book/author). Often, an author’s largest cheque is from libraries.

Unfortunately in the States authors don’t get the same boon, but still supporting your local libraries is just as good as supporting your local indie bookstores!

4. Soo many people look at covers, and soo much goes into creating them

I’m not really a designer, so I’m certain this wouldn’t surprise those of you who actually do graphic design, but they seriously look at every single detail and how it will benefit or hurt the sales. The placement of blurbs, choice of fonts, colours, subtitles, even the placement of raindrops for a rainy background, everything is discussed and tested and tried several different ways. So yes, DO judge a book by its cover, we work so hard on making covers perfect for the audience we’re trying to reach.

5. Publishing houses don’t necessarily have in-house editors, publicity, or other roles

I had always assumed that every publishing house had its own editors and publicists and what not. That’s probably true for the bigger ones, but if you’re being published by a smaller one (which you may be for your debut) you may be working with freelance editors and publicists who work somewhat with your publishing house and also with others as well. We have one in-house publicist, and no editors!

I wouldn’t turn down a publishing house just because they use freelancers (our freelancers are amazing!) but it’s important that they’re upfront about it. Huge red flag if they say they have in-house editors and they don’t actually—I would pass on a publishing house that lies to you.

Any other questions you have about the industry I’ll try to answer!

[cleolinda]

Alice Munro, the Nobel Literature Prize winner best known for her mastery of short stories and depictions of womanhood in rural settings, has died in Ontario, Canada, at the age of 92. The news was confirmed to CNN “with great sadness” by a spokesperson at her publisher, Penguin Random House.

Munro’s mainstream breakthrough came in 1968 with the publication of her debut short story collection, “Dance of the Happy Shades.” A collection of 15 of her earliest stories, the book received critical acclaim and won Canada’s prestigious Governor General’s Award for Fiction in the same year.

It largely sets the tone for Munro’s prose; semi-autobiographical in nature and exploring the universality of the human urge for self-discovery, love, and independence, through the mundanity of everyday life in small, rural communities.

In 2013, Munro was selected as Nobel Laureate in Literature for her body of work spanning seven decades. The Nobel Committee described Munro as a “master of the contemporary short story,” whose writing captured “the feeling of just being a human being.”

[bonniegrrl]

GET CRAFTING WITH FEMINISM SUPER CHEAP:

Get the ebook edition of my Crafting With Feminism book for super-duper-cheap at $1.99 on Amazon thanks to Quirk Books & Penguin Random House.

It's a fun craft book with a forward written by my friend & Queen of Creativity, Felicia Day!📚

USA: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A4ANS0O

CANADA: https://www.amazon.ca/Crafting-Feminism-Girl-Powered-Projects-Patriarchy-ebook/dp/B01A4ANS0O/

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crafting-Feminism-Girl-Powered-Projects-Patriarchy-ebook/dp/B01A4ANS0O/

[t0rschlusspan1k]

In occasion of the 30th anniversary from the Rwandan genocide I couldn't refrain from presenting you with this book I read a couple of years ago. It's a memoir/report by Clea Koff, a forensic anthropologist, who worked on the mass graves of the most important massacres in recent history: Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo.

From Penguin Random House Canada:

Published ten years after the genocide in Rwanda, The Bone Woman is a riveting, deeply personal account by a forensic anthropologist sent on seven missions by the UN War Crimes Tribunal. To prosecute charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, the UN needs proof that the bodies found are those of non-combatants. This means answering two questions: who the victims were, and how they were killed. The only people who can answer both these questions are forensic anthropologists. Before being sent to Rwanda in 1996, Clea Koff was a twenty-three-year-old graduate student studying prehistoric skeletons in the safe confines of Berkeley, California. Over the next four years, her gruelling investigation into events that shocked the world transformed her from a wide-eyed student into a soul-weary veteran — and a wise and deeply thoughtful woman. Her unflinching account of those years — what she saw, how it affected her, who went to trial based on evidence she collected — makes for an unforgettable read, alternately riveting, frightening and miraculously hopeful. Readers join Koff as she comes face to face with the human meaning of genocide: exhuming almost five hundred bodies from a single grave in Kibuye, Rwanda; uncovering the wire-bound wrists of Srebrenica massacre victims in Bosnia; disinterring the body of a young man in southwestern Kosovo as his grandfather looks on in silence. As she recounts the fascinating details of her work, the hellish working conditions, the bureaucracy of the UN, and the heartbreak of survivors, Koff imbues her story with an immense sense of hope, humanity and justice.

I also recommend you watch the video and read the articles and posts I shared earlier on my blog to better understand how this horror came to be:

Rwanda: From colonialism to genocide (documentary + article)

Emmanuel Macron's declarations

Some other book recommendations:

[FR] Maria Malagardis, "Avant la nuit"

[FR] Dorcy Rugamba, "Hewa Rwanda: Lettre aux absents"

Fiston Mudacumura, "Born Hutsi: My Imbroglio"

Thank you for your attention.

[the-empress-7]

"I wonder if their card said, behind a large yellow candle"

Their card states:

To: Harold and M, Duke and Duchess of Chunga-Changa

What: KCIII Coronation. You can see The Prince of Wales' Coronet, The Princess of Wales will wear an elegant dress that will match her Tiara and other crown jewels that will be loaned to her, and the Wales' kids looking so regal, specially Princess Charlotte with a nice dress that actually fits. This is a soft show of the future of the monarchy just to remind you what and who matters.

Where: United Kingdom. We do not have any branch in North America, we are not planning on bringing the coronation to you.

When: May 6, 2023. We know it's your son's birthday. We intentionally chose this day to give you a reason not to come. You no longer need to think of any excuse since we know you are not good at thinking.

Why: We actually don't want you here. The tax payers don't want you too. Nobody bloody wants you but we are still sending for the sake of sending.

How to get there: Since you think that you are more important than you really are, and act like you're Earth's most victimized victim of all victims eversince victimization exist. We decided that it is best to send a platoon of well trained penguins from North Pole who will handle your security. The penguins will come at your castle at Chunga-Changa. They will excort you to your borrowed private jet. Those penguins will fly you first to Australia since you claim to be famous there. The Aussies will have a tea throwing party at you. Immediately after that, they will fly you to Vancouver Island where the penguins will take a pap photo of you so you can publish a pap photobook at Penguin Random House. After Canada, the penguins will bring you to Africa and tell all the citizens to ask you if you are Ok. Only then you can go to UK.

To protect you from the racjst UK. We have commisioned life size yellow cancles that will surround you while in UK. It'll be there while you are walking, seating, standing even when you are riding a car. No paps or British media can take a photo/video of any your body part since the candle will handle the cover. Also to protect Harold from the Willy, PoW, we decided to place your seat at the very back of the venue. The PoW and his family will seat in front being the heir. The spare like most stock of spare parts are in the tool box in the back. So you stay at the very back. Also since The Wife is mad that the Princess of Wales got first dibs of the designer brands and she needs to follow the queue after her, we are delightful to inform you that you no longer need to follow that queue. The British brands decided to remove you from the queue. You are no longer need to have to choose from their selection since it will not be offered to you.

[ekmosley]

Have you ever dreamed the same dream... twice... or thrice... or more...

"Deep in the sky... where the stars burned bright, Stardog dreamed the same dream... every night..." .

• * Enter the stunning world of the last Stardog, discover her story and the joy and strength to be found in most unlikely of friendships. Outside of dreams, Stardog is the last of her kind. One night, heavy with loneliness Stardog falls out of the sky, down to Earth where the familiar falls away and the unknown grows all around. Too heavy to fly home, Stardog sets out on a journey to fulfil her dream – to find others like her. But along the way Stardog realises the journey is no easy feat and dreams can change…

- The Last Stardog by E.K Mosley Published by Flying Eye Books

• * Now Available:

U.K: Waterstones/ Amazon

USA/Canada: Penguin Random House/ Barnes&Noble/ Amazon/ Bookshop.org

Australia/New Zealand: Walker Books/ Amazon

France: Kaleidoscope

Holland: Christofoor

Greece: Petita Demas . • * • Reviews:

• "Intricate and captivating, The Last Stardog is an utterly charming and delightful story of friendship and dreams, and the magic that sparks where they meet." - Hollie Hughes, Author of The Girl and the Dinosaur

[sassafrasmoonshine]

Barnabus lived in a secret lab. He was half mouse and half elephant, and he had lived in the lab as long as he could remember.

The Fan Brothers – Eric (author), Terry (illustrator), and Devin (author) • Canadian • The Barnabas Project • 2020 • Tundra Books, a division of Penguin Random House Young Readers, Canada

[theiconicmeghanmarkle]

Prince Harry’s memoir, “Spare,” has become a record-breaking success, with first-day sales that exceed some of publishing’s biggest hits, including blockbusters by Barack and Michelle Obama.

“Spare” sold more than 1.43 million copies in all formats in the United States, Canada and Britain, including pre-orders, according to its publisher. The figure marked the largest first-day sales for any nonfiction book ever published by Penguin Random House, the world’s largest publisher.

[scifrey]

You can now pre-order my novel TIME AND TIDE! If you buy the book now, it will arrive on your doorstep or pick-up bookstore on the day it drops!

I am both very excited and very nervous. I hope you guys like it.

Click here to buy it directly from my publisher, Penguin Random House Canada / W by Wattpad Books, or visit this page for more options. Of course, I will always encourage you to support your local independent bookstore, so head on in to the shop and pre-order the book directly with them, and I know you’ll be their fave customer that day.

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 5/5

Book Blurb:

Once upon a time a vampire took a bite of a jam sandwich . . . and a legend was born. Now the vampire jam sandwich roams the streets, looking for MORE JAM. Will yours be next? A hilarious spooky picture book featuring a sneaky vampire, for fans of Creepy Carrots and How to Make Friends With a Ghost.

You may not have heard of the Vampire Jam Sandwich. But it's time you learned the truth.

Once upon a time, a vampire (maybe his name is Terrence) took a bite of a jam sandwich (maybe he thought the jam was . . . something else).

And you know what happens when a vampire bites you . . .

That's right. The jam sandwich has become . . . A VAMPIRE JAM SANDWICH. Terrifying, stalking the streets at night, sneaking into people's homes in an endless search for MORE JAM!

Kids and adults alike will be delighted by this sly jam-loving vampire and his jam sandwich legend, with hilarious tongue-in-cheek art from Nici Gregory. Can you trust your narrator? Is the Vampire Jam Sandwich real? Is your jam safe? Read on to find out . . .

Review:

Whats a vampire to do if he wants strawberry jam? Well find out now! This was such a charming and sweet story about a vampire who craves strawberry jam and his advice for anyone who wants to avoid the vampire jam sandwich that is going to steal all your jam! Its a cute read and the art was adorable.

Release Date: June 24,2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada | Tundra Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[writers-against-gun-violence]

Gunfight by Ryan Busse - A former firearms executive pulls back the curtain on America's multibillion-dollar gun industry.

As an avid hunter, outdoorsman, and conservationist–all things that the firearms industry was built on–Ryan Busse chased a childhood dream and built a successful career selling millions of firearms for one of America’s most popular gun companies. But blinded by the promise of massive profits, the gun industry abandoned its self-imposed decency in favor of hardline conservatism and internal policing, sowing irreparable division in our politics and society. That drove Busse to do something few other gun executives have done: he's ending his 30-year career in the industry to show us how and why we got here.   Gunfight is an insider’s call-out of a wild, secretive, and critically important industry. It shows us how America's gun industry shifted from prioritizing safety and ethics to one that is addicted to fear, conspiracy, intolerance, and secrecy. It recounts Busse's personal transformation and shows how authoritarianism spreads in the guise of freedom, how voicing one's conscience becomes an act of treason in a culture that demands sameness and loyalty. Gunfight offers a valuable perspective as the nation struggles to choose between armed violence or healing.

There are many other anti-gun books on the market. Penguin Random House partners with Everytown for Gun Safety to help send a powerful message to end gun violence and they actively promote the National Gun Violence Awareness Day Reading List. The list includes The Violence Inside Us by Chris Murphy, Carry by Toni Jensen, Stop Teaching Our Kids To Kill by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and Gloria Degaetano, Stay True by Hua Hsu, Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People, by Dennis A. Henigan, The Anatomy of Violence by Adrian Raine, Stand Your Ground by Caroline Light and Fist Stick Knife Gun by Geoffrey Canada.

In addition, there have been many novels that send powerful anti-gun messages. Some of the more recent anti-gun novels include Big Guns by Steve Israel, Only Child by Rhiannon Navin, Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips, Gun Love by Jennifer Clement, If We Had Known by Elise Juska, Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll, The Ones Who Got Away by Roni Loren, Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds and This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp.

Each one of these books helps to carry the message that something has to be done about gun violence in America and I encourage everyone who reads this blog to also read these books.

[bookclub4m]

Episode 178 - Aliens, Extraterrestrials, and UFOs

This episode we’re talking about non-fiction books about Aliens, Extraterrestrials, and UFOs! We discuss unexplained aerial phenomenon, owls, exobiology, and aliens wearing hats!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

Astrobiology: A Very Short Introduction by David C. Catling

The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves by Arik Kershenbaum

Death from the Skies! These Are the Ways the World Will End… by Philip Plait

Death from the Skies! The Science Behind the End of the World…

Search for the Unknown: Canada’s UFO Files and the Rise of Conspiracy Theory by Matthew Hayes

Aliens: Join the Scientists Searching Space for Extraterrestrial Life by Joalda Morancy, illustrated by Amy Grimes

Picturing Extraterrestrials: Alien Images in Modern Mass Culture by John F. Moffitt

Intimate Alien: The Hidden Story of the UFO by David J Halperin

They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers by Sarah Scoles

Mirage Men: An Adventure into Paranoia, Espionage, Psychological Warfare, and UFOs by Mark Pikington

Mirage Men (Wikipedia) - The documentary

Other Media We Mentioned

Chariots of The Gods by Erich von Däniken

Chariots of the Gods? (Wikipedia)

The X-Files (Wikipedia)

Mars Attacks! (1996 film)

The yodeling scene ("Indian Love Call" by Slim Whitman)

Mars Attacks (Wikipedia)

The trading cards

Communion: A True Story by Whitley Strieber

The Disappearing Act by Florence de Changy

Disappearance of the Malaysian airplane

Links, Articles, and Things

Barney and Betty Hill incident (Wikipedia)

METI International (Wikipedia)

Reptilian conspiracy theory (Wikipedia)

ʻOumuamua (Wikipedia)

Raëlism (Wikipedia)

Martian canals (Wikipedia)

Neon Squid Books

U.S. judge says Penguin Random House book merger cannot go forward

Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (Wikipedia)

How Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge Became a U.F.O. Researcher

10 Non-Fiction Books About Aliens & UFOs (and other phenomena) by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Aliens: The World's Leading Scientists on the Search for Extraterrestrial Life edited by Jim Al-Khalili

Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines by Jim Al-Khalili

More Encounters with Star People: Urban American Indians Tells Their Stories by Ardy Sixkiller Clarke

Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life Beyond Our Solar System by Ray Jayawardhana

Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku

Aliens: Join the Scientists Searching Space for Extraterrestrial Life by Joalda Morancy

Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas That Reveal the Cosmos by Priyamvada Natarajan

Mondes d'ailleurs by Trịnh Xuân Thuận

Cosmic Queries: StarTalk's Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We're Going by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Why Aren't They Here: The Question of Life on Other Worlds by Surendra Verma

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, July 18th it’s time for our annual One Book One Podcast pitch episode!

Then on Tuesday, August 1st we’ll be discussing the genre of Pulp Fiction!

[thoughtportal]

A mind-bending, gripping novel about Native life, motherhood and mental health that follows a young Mohawk woman who discovers that the picture-perfect life she always hoped for may have horrifying consequences On the surface, Alice is exactly where she should be: She’s just given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Dawn; her charming husband, Steve is nothing but supportive; and they’ve recently moved into a new home in a wealthy neighborhood in Toronto. But Alice could not feel like more of an imposter. She isn’t connecting with Dawn, a struggle made even more difficult by the recent loss of her own mother, and every waking moment is spent hiding her despair from their white, watchful neighbors. Even when she does have a minute to herself, her perpetual self-doubt hinders the one vestige of her old life she has left: her goal of writing a modern retelling of the Haudenosaunee creation story. At first, Alice is convinced her discomfort is of her own making. She has gotten everything she always dreamed of, after all. But then strange things start happening. She finds herself losing bits of time, hearing voices she can’t explain, and speaking with things that should not be talking back to her, all while her neighbors’ passive-aggressive behavior begins to morph into something far more threatening. Though Steve assures her this is all in her head, Alice cannot fight the feeling that something is very, very wrong, and that in her creation story lies the key to her and Dawn’s survival. . . . She just has to finish it before it’s too late. Told in Alice’s raw and darkly funny voice, And Then She Fell is an urgent and unflinching look at inherited trauma, womanhood, denial, and false allyship, which speeds to an unpredictable—and surreal—climax.

[littlescorpiondreams]

My adult fantasy novel, NOCTURNE, is available now from Penguin Random House. I would love it if you’d check it out 😊

US: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/nocturne-alyssa-wees/1141501991?ean=9780593357477#

Canada: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/products/nocturne?_pos=1&_psq=Nocturne&_ss=e&_v=1.0

UK: https://www.waterstones.com/book/nocturne/alyssa-wees/9781529900965

🩰🎻🕊️

Growing up in Chicago’s Little Sicily in the years following the Great War, Grace Dragotta has always wanted to be a ballerina, ever since she first peered through the windows of the Near North Ballet company. So when Grace is orphaned, she chooses the ballet as her home, imagining herself forever ensconced in a transcendent world of light and beauty so different from her poor, immigrant upbringing.

Years later, with the Great Depression in full swing, Grace has become the company’s new prima ballerina—though achieving her long-held dream is not the triumph she once envisioned. Time and familiarity have tarnished that shining vision, and her new position means the loss of her best friend in the world. Then she attracts the attention of the enigmatic Master La Rosa as her personal patron and realizes the world is not as small or constricted as she had come to fear.

Who is her mysterious patron, and what does he want from her? As Grace begins to unlock the Master’s secrets, she discovers that there is beauty in darkness as well as light, finds that true friendship cannot be broken by time or distance, and realizes there may be another way entirely to achieve the transcendence she has always sought.

[ingek73]

Prince Harry’s Spare is fastest-selling nonfiction book since UK records began

First week of the controversial memoir’s sales breaks official UK records reports Nielsen, Guinness World Records and Waterstones

Sarah Shaffi

Tue 17 Jan 2023 16.13 GMT

Prince Harry’s Spare has sold almost half a million copies in the UK in its first week on sale, making it the fastest-selling nonfiction book since records began.

According to Nielsen, Spare sold a total of 467,183 print copies through UK retailers in its first week of release, making it No 1 on the book charts. This does not include ebook sales or audiobook copies.

Penguin Random House (PRH) UK said the book had sold 750,000 copies in the UK across all formats – hardbacks, ebooks and audiobooks – in its first week. Of these, 400,000 copies were on its first day on sale in the UK.

Larry Finlay, managing director of Transworld, the PRH division which published the book in the UK, said Guinness World Records had confirmed that Spare was the fastest-selling nonfiction book ever on its first day of publication.

Finlay said as well as being the fastest selling, “we now know that it is also the biggest selling memoir ever in its first week of publication”.

In second place in this week’s UK chart is Bored of Lunch: The Healthy Slow Cooker Book by Nathan Anthony, which sold 31,928 copies.

Spare is the fastest-selling nonfiction book in the UK since Nielsen BookData’s official printed book sales records began in 1998. The previous record was held by the first Pinch of Nom cookbook by Kay Allinson, which sold 210,506 copies in its first three days of release in 2019.

Waterstones said the pre-orders for Spare, which are counted in the first official week of sales, were “the largest on record for a nonfiction title” for the retailer, with nonfiction category manager John Cotterill saying they were “delighted with the first week’s performance”.

“Waterstones’ sales of Spare have been exceptional,” Cotterill said. “Seven days after publication, Spare is one of Waterstones’ fastest-selling books in a decade.”

The book also remains No 1 on the Amazon bestsellers chart, and is the site’s bestselling nonfiction title.

Spare sold a combined 1,430,000 copies on its first day on sale in the US, Canada and the UK, according to the book’s publisher Penguin Random House, overtaking Barack Obama’s A Promised Land, which had previously recorded the biggest first-day sales for the publisher.

The US had originally printed two million copies, and the publisher is now reprinting.

Harry’s controversial memoir Spare made headlines ahead of publication. The Guardian was first to report of a passage in the book which described a physical fight between Harry and his brother Prince William.

After the book was accidentally put on sale in bookshops in Spain, more revelations followed, including that the royal brothers asked their father not to marry Camilla and that King Charles reportedly called Harry the “spare” when he was born.

Harry has made a number of media appearances for the book, including an ITV interview in the UK and appearing on Stephen Colbert’s late-night talkshow in the US.

[lambdalibrary]

My Brother's Husband | Otōto no Otto

Content Warnings

Homophobia

Links

A link to Penguin Random House where you can buy the volumes. You can also find read them on manga sites, but the fan translators stopped when the volumes were officially translated in order to help promote the work. That's only for English however. Sites I've checked have the full work translated in Spanish and Portuguese if you are fluent.

Tagame's website where you can see his other work. This link is NSFW

Tagame's Twitter. This link is also NSFW.

Something I'd like to say while linking to these sites and before I talk about the manga itself is how different My Brother's Husband is from Tagame's other work. My Brother's Husband is a light hearted slice of life manga, and Tagame's other works are very explicit. I've seen other people explain this difference before they recommend people check out Tagame's other work in a way that I would say feels very judgemental, if not homophobic, even if the people saying it are LGBT themselves.

While I obviously think its good to warn people that his other work is NSFW and therefore may not be what they're looking for, its important not to end up putting his NSFW stuff down in the process. In fact, I think its important that his other work is so explicit. Sexuality after all, is about sexuality. LGBT erotica and pornography is just as important to LGBT history and culture as anything else. Plus, it's not like My Brother's Husband doesn't have a few panels of barely covered men anyways.

Summary

My Brother's Husband is a slice of life manga about Origuchi Yaichi who has to deal with both his homophobia and the death of his brother Ryoji and what family means as Ryoji's husband Mike Flanagan comes to visit.

Thoughts

Definitely check this out if you're a fan of manga especially slice of life manga or you're just looking for something short and sweet. It's just really cute and I mean sometimes that's all you need. That's not to say there's not substance here because there is, its just explored through a more lighthearted genre.

Like there's the idea of culture and tradition that's explored. It's important not only that Mike is gay but that he's also white. That Ryoji went to Canada to be himself and died there versus in Japan. While this is a large part of the manga, I don't feel qualified enough on the LGBT culture of Japan to go into detail on it myself though, especially when comparing countries based on their LGBT rights records can contribute to pinkwashing.

The only real negative thing I can say is that My Brother's Husband might be a bit too...educational focused? Like I as a gay person don't need a chapter to inform me why other LGBT people might stay in the closet, but a cishet person might. But that's not even a negative thing, that's even part of the reason it exists to help educate people about gay issues in Japan. But it never educates from...for lack of a better term, a cishet gaze? Obviously partially because the author himself is gay but even though the narrator is not it just never slips into treating Mike as a purely educational tool. He's his own character, just like everyone else in the manga.