This is the Genki textbook that I learn Japanese from. I find this the most helpful resource I have, because it provides a lot of practice that you don’t really see with other language textbooks.
Wild Bird helped shape my perception of sobriety and how people, especially impressionable teens, can get sucked into the endless cycle of drugs. The coming of age story as the main character learned to grow from her time in a wilderness rehab center has ingrained itself into my head. I’ve always heard about the long road to recovery but never experienced it first hand, which is why this book was able to pull me in to an environment so that I could really see what my perspective had been missing.
This is romance book, but I’d say the main focus is the main character learning to deal with her grief by accepting help from those around her. It was definitely different than what I’d looked for in the genre before, which was cute stories about people falling in love, and so it introduced a new sub-genre of growth and introspection that I was captivated by.
Whenever I go to Barnes and Nobles I always seem to leave with two or three more manga volumes than I’d intended on buying. I’m definitely not a collector, because my goal isn’t to have complete collections of stories but instead to buy physical copies of my favorite arcs and art panels.
